Economic Survey Highlights Increase In Government's Investment In Social Infrastructure, Points To Reduction In Multidimensional Poverty

The Government of India increased its spending on social services, with a focus on improving the overall well-being of citizens.

In the latest Economic Survey 2022-23, it was revealed that the share of expenditure on social services has risen to 26.6 per cent of the total government expenditure in the financial year 2023 (BE).

The social sector expenditure has seen a continuous rise, with an increase of 8.4 per cent in the financial year 2021 over 2020 and 31.4 per cent in the financial year 2022 over 2021. This trend was particularly noticeable in the health and education sectors, which received increased funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The budgeted expenditure on the health sector has reached 2.1 per cent of the GDP in 2023 (BE) and 2.2 per cent in 2022 (RE), in line with the National Health Policy 2017 and the Fifteenth Finance Commission recommendations to increase public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025.

The expenditure on health in the total expenditure on social services has risen from 21 per cent in 2019 to 26 per cent in 2023 (BE).

The findings of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have impacted human development globally. Around 90 per cent of countries registered a reduction in their Human Development Index (HDI) value, stalling progress for the first time in 32 years.

India ranked 132nd among 191 countries and territories, in the 2021/2022 Human Development Index (HDI) report. Despite a lower HDI value of 0.633 in 2021 compared to 0.645 in 2019, India still surpasses South Asia's average human development.

It has been steadily increasing and moving towards the world average due to the priority placed on investment in social infrastructure.

The UNDP's 2022 report on Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows suggests that 41.5 crore people have escaped poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21, indicating that the SDG target of reducing poverty by half by 2030 is achievable.

The fastest poverty reduction was seen among the poorest states, children, lower castes, and rural populations. Although the data does not include the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it highlights a decline in deprivation prevalence among the multidimensionally poor. 

India's Gender Inequality Index (GII) value is 0.490 in 2021, ranking it 122 and close to the world average of 0.465. This score reflects the government's initiatives and investments toward more inclusive growth and gender-responsive development policies.

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