This article has two primary objectives. The first objective is to assess the manner in which public subsidies for health and education are distributed among people of different socioeconomic standing in the Indian state of Karnataka. The second purpose is to highlight the policy lessons that follow from it. In undertaking these tasks, the author is motivated by several considerations. Low levels of achievements in income, health, and education often go hand in hand and raise the real possibility that some segments of the population are caught in a self-perpetuating low-education, low-health, and low-income trap. The difficult financial, health, and educational circumstances of certain groups in India, referred to as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, have been especially recognized even under the Indian constitution, while other groups face similar difficulties. In these situations, government intervention can be justified on equity grounds, in addition to arguments relying on externalities, or liquidity constraints, more generally. In India, government interventions have involved providing enhanced economic opportunity, such as via quotas in public-sector jobs and employment guarantee schemes in infrastructure construction projects. They have involved improved political access, brought about by reservations of seats in the legislature in the central government, in the provinces, or in local governments. And they have taken the form of direct financing and provision of health and education services by the government, often under circumstances that offer universally free (or heavily subsidized) access to all citizens. (Contains 39 notes.)