Page 339 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

322 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 1

Figure 3: Improvement in the Bare Necessities Across Urban India from 2012 to 2018

BNI for Urban India 2012 BNI for Urban India 2018

Source: Survey calculations.

10.8 Figure 4 plots the level of BNI for the selected States in 2012 and 2018. The red 45°
2
line represents the benchmark for no change between 2012 and 2018 with which we can
compare each State. A State located above the red line shows improvement while one below
the red 45° line shows deterioration in 2018 from its level in 2012. The vertical distance from
the red line indicates the extent of change for a State. The farther a State is located above the
red line, the higher are the gains. As reflected in the all-India index, access to bare necessities
is high in the States such as Kerala, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat while lowest in Odisha,
Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tripura. Since all States are above the 45° red line, it is evident
that access to bare necessities has secularly improved in 2018 compared to 2012 (Figure 4).
The improvement is significantly higher in the rural areas when compared to the urban areas.
However, variation in the access to bare necessities across states and between rural and urban
remained large.

10.9 Figure 5 plots gains per year against the value of the index in 2012. Gains per year indicates
the speed of improvement in a year on access to bare necessities for households in a State. Gains
per year are calculated by subtracting the index value in 2012 for a State from its value in 2018
and dividing by the number of years between 2012 and 2018. The decline in regional disparities
reflect in the negative association between level of the index in 2012 and the per year gains.
Figure 5 shows that inter-State disparities in terms of access to bare necessities to the households
have declined both in rural as well as in urban areas. States that had low level of access to bare
necessities in 2012 have gained relatively more between 2012 and 2018.

2 Excluding small states performance of which may vary because of their nature of governance, special needs, and
size such as Goa, Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, J&K, Uttarakhand, and
Union Territories.