What if a single policy intervention could simultaneously improve children’s education, expand women’s workforce participation, reduce deadly diseases, and lift millions out of poverty? India’s Modi government has effectively done exactly that through a comprehensive approach to rural infrastructure that treats housing, water, sanitation, electricity, and clean cooking fuel as interconnected elements of human dignity. Roti. Kapda. Makaan

The model represents a departure from how most countries approach poverty reduction. Instead of fragmenting resources across competing priorities, India has recognised a simple truth: a house without water is merely shelter; shelter without electricity condemns children to studying by kerosene lamp; a latrine without dignity is merely a hole in the ground. When you combine these amenities, the results multiply and people claw back from the doom they were slowly edging towards.

Since 2014, 2.82 crore rural houses have been completed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. More than 15.44 crore rural households now have tap water connections, up from just 17% a decade ago. Over 11 crore toilets have been constructed. Nearly 3 crore households were electrified under the Saubhagya scheme. And 10.33 crore LPG connections have been distributed.

These might look like scattered statistics, but they are interconnected. When a family receives a house under PMAY-Gramin, government guidelines mandate that it include a toilet constructed with Rs 12,000 from the Swachh Bharat Mission. The household becomes eligible for electrification if unconnected. If eligible, it can access an LPG connection through PM Ujjwala. Water supply is prioritised through the Jal Jeevan Mission. The house becomes a node in a network rather than an isolated structure. Each beneficiary receives 90 to 95 person-days of wage employment through MGNREGA; all in all, it has become a development model that pays........

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