Poverty and State of Nutrition in Rural India: Facts and Interpretations

Abstract

ABSTRACT
This paper reviews recent evidence on food intake and nutritional well-being in major states of India during last decade. It efforts to make sense of various mysteries, mainly the decline of average calorie intake during the last 25 years. The prices of high value commodities have increased by more than two times during 2004–2005 and 2011–2012. This could be the reason for the recent sluggishness in diet diversification process of rural India. The analysis of calories and protein consumption across the expenditure classes do not give a justification to the debasement of calorie requirements particularly in rural areas. This decline has occurred across the distribution of real per capita expenditure, in spite of increases in real income and no long-term increase in the relative price of food. One assumption is that calorie desires have deteriorated due to lower levels of physical activity or improvements in the health environment. If correct, this does not imply that there are no calorie deficits in the Indian population – nothing could be further from the truth. Many strategies and policies have been proposed to counter undernutrition in India, but their implementation has not been uniform, and it is still too early to assess their lasting impact at scale.