Earlier this month, National Family Health Survey 2023-24 (NFHS-6) was released. Its message is both reassuring and unsettling. At one level, it confirms that over the past decade, India has expanded welfare delivery and connected citizens to essential services at a staggering scale. Powered by DPI built on Aadhaar, this mission of foundational inclusion gathered pace, and has changed the state's ability to deliver.
Electricity access has reached 98.3% of the population. Nearly 98% of households have a bank account. Access to improved drinking water is 96.5%, and institutional births account for more than 90% of deliveries. This also reflects integration of over 1.4 bn people into formal systems of welfare and public service delivery.
