NSO study: In-kind welfare transfers lifted 220 million Indians into higher consumption classes in 2022-23, West Bengal top beneficiary

Key facts

• A National Statistical Office (NSO) study, published in its journal Sarvekshana, found that free and subsidised in-kind welfare transfers improved the level of living of about 220 million Indians in 2022-23.
• In-kind transfers moved 15.8 per cent of India's total population into a higher consumption class, comprising 18.8 per cent of the rural and 8.4 per cent of the urban population.
• West Bengal recorded the highest share among the 18 major states, with 40.5 per cent of its population moving up a class (46.5 per cent rural and 24.9 per cent urban), while Gujarat (3.7 per cent) and Kerala (4.6 per cent) had the smallest shares.
• The study used unit-level data from the NSO Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23, ranking households into 12 classes by monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) before adding the value of free items.
• Transferred goods included food grains from the Public Distribution System (PDS), pulses, sugar, salt, edible oil, school uniforms, shoes, bicycles, mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
• In rural India, upward movement ranged from 4 per cent to 33 per cent, and in urban India from 1 per cent to 22 per cent, with the largest movement in the bottom three consumption classes.
• Including in-kind transfers slightly reduced consumption inequality: the Gini coefficient fell from 0.266 to 0.261 in rural India and from 0.314 to 0.309 in urban India in 2022-23.