Can a welfare state like India fulfil the requirement of these “minimum” needs?
A welfare state works on redistribution of wealth via taxation and subsidies, reliefs, reservations and special helps etc. We have discussed “why a welfare state fails” here at this page objectively (please read). Welfare states assume that some people are poor because some other are rich and by taking away the richness of rich via compulsory taxation, coercive confiscations, penalties and governmental loots, and distributing it in poor via subsidies, free distribution of food, education, shelter, cloths, water, health-care and other facilities. Thus, the difference will be reduced, equality will be achieved and then there will be no poor. For gaining equality, they tend to bring whole society at an assumed arbitrary economic line.
