Access to bare necessities: expanded public programmes improved household service access, reducing disparities and enhancing health and education outcomes.
The Economic Survey creates a Bare Necessities Index (BNI) using 26 indicators across five dimensions to measure state level access to housing, water, sanitation, micro environment and other household facilities for 2012 and 2018; it reports overall improvement, reduced inter state disparities, larger gains for the poorest households, and associates expanded public programmes with better health and education outcomes.