The standard of living of four out of every 10 people in West Bengal improved because of the government’s welfare schemes – the highest proportion of any major state – according to a new study by statisticians from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). At 40.5%, the percentage for West Bengal is comfortably the highest, with Chhattisgarh second with 29.2%, Assam third (29%), and Karnataka fourth (28.4%).Nationally, around 22 crore people saw an improvement in their level of living due to in-kind social transfers, the MoSPI staff paper found, with 15.8% of the population seeing higher levels of living. Titled ‘Impact of in-kind social transfer on level of living of Indian households’, the paper was released in the latest issue of the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) journal, Sarvekshna.The journal said opinions expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the government.Using data from the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), the paper compared the change in households’ Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure fractile class with and without including the estimated value of free or subsidised goods such as foodgrains, laptops, bicycles, and school uniforms, among others.The study does not estimate the value of free medical services available through the PM Jan Aarogya Yojna and free education services. “Needless to say, consideration of the benefits of free health and education services in imputation would have resulted in further improvements in the level of living of the households specifically, belonging to the lower fractile classes,” the paper said.If a household moves up a fractile class – which refers to consumption classes starting from 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, 20-30% and going up to 80-90%, 90-95%, and 95-100% – once the estimated value of in-kind transfers is included in their consumption expenditure, then it implies “the intended benefits have reached the targeted beneficiaries” and improved their level of living, the paper said.“Our analysis clearly demonstrates that the in-kind transfer of food and other items through different social welfare schemes of the governments have positively impacted the level of living of the beneficiary households,” the paper, authored by Amitava Saha and Gopal Saha, said. While the former is a Deputy Director General in the Household Survey Division of the NSO, Gopal Saha is a Deputy Director in the Field Operation Division.Story continues below this adAccording to the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, the average rural family spent Rs 3,773 per month on various goods and services. This rose to Rs 3,860 if the value of in-kind transfers was included in the monthly expenditure figure.For urban households, the amount rose from Rs 6,459 from Rs 6,521.This was the first time that the statistics ministry had attempted to estimate the value of some food and non-food items given to households either for free or at a subsidised rate through various social welfare programmes.As would be expected, improvement in living standards because of the social transfers was higher in rural areas at 18.8% of the population. For urban areas, it was 8.4%.Story continues below this adIn rural areas, anywhere between 4-33% of the population moved to the higher consumption class after including the value of social transfers. For urban areas, the range of upward movement was 1-22%.“Besides, in both rural and urban India, maximum upward movement of the population is observed in bottom three fractile classes. Such lateral movement of the population resonates with the progressive nature of the social transfers, i.e., these are intended for the poor, not the rich,” the paper said.