KEY TRENDS 

• Average daily intake of calories by rural population has dropped by 106 Kcal (4.9 percent) from 2153 Kcal in 1993-94 to 2047 Kcal in 2004-05*

• Almost 66% of the total population in rural areas reported a calorie intake of less than 2700 Kcal per day*

• Average daily intake of protein has declined from 60.2 grams in 1993-94 to 57 grams in 2004-05 in the rural areas*

• The consumption of fat was relatively much lower in rural areas (44.0 gms.) compared to that in urban areas (58.2 gms.)*

• The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world**

• The prevalence of stuntedness (during NFHS-III, 2005-06) among children below 3 years was highest in Uttar Pradesh (46.0%), to be followed by Chattisgarh (45.4%) and Gujarat (42.4%)***

• Nutrition during childhood and adolescence influence a woman’s pre-conceptional nutritional status, which subsequently influences the outcome of pregnancy and the health of her child. Malnutrition is perpetuated across generations via this cycle*#

• Even the best-performing Indian State, Punjab, lies below 33 other developing countries ranked by the Global Hunger Index. The worst-performing States in India have index scores that would be at the bottom of the global rankings: Bihar and Jharkhand rank lower than Zimbabwe and Haiti, and Madhya Pradesh falls between Ethiopia and Chad$#

* Nutritional Intake in India: 2004-2005, NSS 61st Round, July 2004- June 2005
** World Bank
*** National Family Health Survey III (2005-06)
*# Facilitating Improved Nutrition for Pregnant and Lactating Women, and Children 0–5 Years of Age by Kathryn G. Dewey (2003), PhD, University of California, Davis, USA
$# Ghosh, Jayati (2009): Food for all, Frontline, 15-28 August

OVERVIEW 

India’s story of attaining self sufficiency in food grain production is the stuff of the legend. But a proud India was soon to learn that self sufficiency did not mean food for every citizen, leave alone adequate nutrition. However, one must not undermine the value of self reliance, knowing well enough the sinister link between hunger and a country’s dependence on food imports. One must also remember that many developed countries where nutrition is not a problem happen to be big importers of food. Obviously, nutrition security depends on a large number of factors, many of which have nothing to do with food.   

The issue of nutritional security is extremely complex. Many countries with similar per capita food consumption have vastly different rates of life expectancies and child mortality. Clearly, oversimplified statistical correlations and juxtapositions don’t work here. Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen have argued in their seminal work, Hunger and Public Action (OUP 1989), that we need to broaden our attention: a) from food-sufficiency to food-adequacy, b) from food adequacy to food entitlements, and c) from food entitlements to nutritional and related capabilities. The authors capture the big picture of nutritional security through many non-food factors like “medical attention, health services, basic education, sanitary arrangements, provision of clean water, eradication of infectious epidemics, and so on.”

If we want to know why one third of world’s underweight children (which comes to roughly 57 million) live in India, we only have to look at a child’s environment here.  According to NFHS, two third babies are born anemic and about one third have stunted growth. Those who survive the lack of healthcare, immunization, sanitation or safe drinking water grow up as victims of human trafficking, child abuse or forced child labour. It is obvious that improving the nutritional security of its children is much more complex than achieving self-sufficiency in food production. True, the country is committed to achieving this through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but its progress is agonizingly slow.