The United Nations marks October 16th as the ‘World Food Day’. In October every year, since 2006, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) is also released by a group of international organisations – Concern Worldwide, Welthungerhilfe, and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV).
India usually ranks poorly. India’s GHI rank for this year 105 out of 127 countries. During the last few years, the GHI caused a lot of controversy in the country with media and opposition parties highlighting the poor rank on the one hand and the Union government strongly rejecting the report entirely on the basis of objections to the methodology and data sources used.
One of the points of discussion is whether GHI reflects ‘hunger’ as we usually understand it, as it is a combined index of the
Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) ‘prevalence of undernutrition’ (PoU) indicator along with indicators of child undernutrition (stunting and wasting) and child mortality (under-5 mortality). The latter indicators are determined by multiple factors, including but not just food security. Rather than repeating this debate, what this occasion of World Food Day should be used for is to review the status of food security in the country along with attention to the current priorities and challenges.
A step forward
During the last two decades, India has made a lot of progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition. The prevalence of stunting among children has reduced from 48% in 2005-06 (NFHS-3) to 35.5% in 2019-21 (NFHS-5). PoU has reduced from 21.4% during 2004-06 to 13.7% during 2020-22. Along with better living standards for many, the expansion in government welfare programmes related to food and nutrition over the last 20 years has also made a significant contribution to reducing hunger.
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During the 2000s, many states increased coverage under the public distribution system (PDS) and introduced lower prices of food grains. This eventually culminated in the passage of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013 which made access to subsidised grains, for 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population, a legal entitlement.
Following Supreme Court orders in the ‘Right to Food’ case, which started in 2001, hot, cooked meals in government schools through the mid-day meal scheme was rolled out across the country. Anganwadi centres, which provided supplementary nutrition along with other education and health services to children under six years of age, pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls, were universalised and an attempt was made to cover all villages and urban slums. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) was passed in 2005 and social security pensions scheme for the aged, single women and disabled was also streamlined across the country.
While some states, especially in South India, had many of these initiatives since earlier, there was a massive expansion across the country during 2004 – 2014, through initiatives of both central and state governments. As a result, these entitlement-based welfare schemes became well entrenched. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the distribution of grains to NFSA beneficiaries has been made free under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKAY).
Gaps remain
However, some significant gaps remain. The existing programmes have plateaued in coverage and resources. When it comes to PDS, the number of beneficiaries has not been updated based on population increase as the decennial Census has not taken place since 2011.
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The Union government’s real budgets allocated to school meals and Anganwadis have been consistently falling. Salaries of Anganwadi workers have not been increased. Contributions to social security pensions have remained the same for more than 15 years. Maternity entitlements are still measly (Rs 5,000 per pregnant woman) and child care services (creches) hardly exist. It is perturbing that these programmes are all being neglected despite the evidence showing their significant role in bringing about change.
As we look ahead on what needs to be done for food security, two issues need to be highlighted. First, although there have been improvements discussed above, the goal of ‘food security for all’ is nowhere close to being achieved. While there is a reduction in hunger narrowly defined as not being on an empty stomach, ‘food security’ defined as ‘having access to safe and nutritious food that meets dietary needs and preferences’ is still not a reality for a large section of the population. Child malnutrition levels and micronutrient deficiencies (e.g. anaemia) are still at unacceptably high levels.
Second, across the world and in India, there have been indications of food insecurity over the last few years. Globally, PoU declined from 13.2% in 2002 to 7.1% in 2017, however there has been an increase since to 9.1% in 2023. Corresponding figures for India are 22% in 2002 to 10.3% in 2017 and 13.7% in 2023.
Dipa Sinha is a development economist.
