SECTION B
Essay
125 marks
Neglect of primary health care and education in India are reasons for its backwardness.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The topic claims India's relative underdevelopment stems from long neglect of primary health care and basic schooling. The examiner wants an essay that tests this causal claim, showing how weak foundations limit productivity and equity, while noting recent reforms and other causes.
ThesisIndia's development has been held back less by lack of growth than by weak foundations in primary health and education, and fixing these is the surest path to broad-based prosperity.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Human capital: poorly nourished, poorly taught children grow into less productive workers, limiting growth
- 2Health economics: high out-of-pocket spending on illness pushes families into poverty
- 3Learning: enrolment rose after the Right to Education Act, but foundational reading and arithmetic remain weak for many children
- 4Federal governance: health and school education depend heavily on states, so capacity varies sharply across India
- 5Demography: India's young population becomes a dividend only if healthy and skilled
Counter-view
- Some argue India's backwardness stems more from colonial extraction, low industrialisation or infrastructure gaps. The essay should accept multiple causes but show that health and education condition all of them
Open and close
- Open: Open with a Class 5 child in a rural school who cannot read a Class 2 text, the kind of finding Pratham's ASER surveys have reported for years
- Close: Conclude that India's rise will be decided in its primary health centres and primary classrooms more than in its stock markets
Where marks usually go
- Turning the essay into a list of health and education schemes
- Ignoring the word 'primary' and writing about IITs and AIIMS
- Accepting the causal claim without testing it against other causes
Examples that fit
- HistoryThe Bhore Committee in 1946 recommended a primary health centre network, a vision that remained under-funded for decades.Health Survey and Development Committee (Bhore Committee) Report, 1946
- CaseThe Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 called primary health care the key to 'Health for All', which India endorsed but implemented unevenly.WHO, Declaration of Alma-Ata (1978)
- CurrentNIPUN Bharat, launched in 2021 under NEP 2020, aims for universal foundational literacy and numeracy by Grade 3, acknowledging the learning crisis.Ministry of Education, NIPUN Bharat Mission (2021)
- CurrentAyushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres, started in 2018 and renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, aim to strengthen primary care close to communities.Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ayushman Arogya Mandir