Among
the features that sully India's ''growth story'' is
the persistence and possible worsening of malnutrition
in the country. The subsistence nutritional intake
adopted when defining the official poverty line expenditure
for 1972-73 was 2400 Kcal per person per day for the
adult rural population and 2100 Kcal (henceforth ''calories'')
per person per day for the urban population. Needless
to say, calorie requirements would vary depending
on the build and occupation of individuals and would
be substantially different for different age groups.
As a standard, the National Institute of Nutrition
set the requirement for members of a reference group
consisting of Indian males of age 18-29 years with
normal body mass index and weight of 60 kg engaged
in sedentary work at 2320 calories per day. Thus,
the 2300 to 2400 calories per day range provides the
benchmark for required calorie intake for a representative
Indian.
The National Sample Survey (NSS) Organisation has
in periodical consumption expenditure surveys been
collecting and putting out figures on the average
calorie intake per person in Indian households. It
has also provided figures on calorie intake per consumption
unit adjusted for age, with a male child in the 4-6
year age group treated as equivalent to 0.54 of a
representative consumption unit and a male in the
70-plus age group treated as equivalent to 0.7 of
a representative consumption unit. It has recently
released such figures for 2009-10 (NSS Report No.
540: Nutritional Intake in India), permitting an assessment
of the nutritional situation in the country.
On first glance the results seem to give some cause
for satisfaction. At the All-India level calorie intake
per consumption unit stood at 2647 calories in rural
areas and 2604 calories in urban areas, both of which
are higher than the ''recommended'' 2400 calories.
What is more, there is not a single state in which
the average figures fall below 2400. For a country
that is reported to have the world's second worst
child malnutrition record based on physical indicators,
this is indeed encouraging.
However, a closer look at the evidence suggests there
is much cause for concern. To start with, as is to
be expected, there are substantial variations in the
calorie intake numbers across expenditure classes.
In the rural areas it varies from 2007 calories per
consumption unit per day among the poorest 10 per
cent of the population ranked by per capita expenditure
to 3591 calories per consumption unit for the richest
10 per cent. The corresponding figures for urban areas
are 1969 and 3482 calories respectively. More than
30 per cent of the population falls below the benchmark
2400 calories per day per consumption unit intake
in both rural and urban areas.
Secondly, the Planning Commission's estimate of the
required subsistence calorie intake for defining the
poverty line is set at 2400 calories per person (not
per consumption unit) per day in rural areas and 2100
calories per person per day in urban areas. Going
by that figure, at least 80 per cent of the population
in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas fall
below the required subsistence intake. This points
to a much higher incidence of poverty in the country
than reflected in estimates of the proportion of the
population below the official ''poverty'' line. This
is a feature of the evidence that has been highlighted
by Professor Utsa Patnaik, who has argued that the
official poverty estimates were based on an erroneous
definition of poverty in which ''the 'poverty line'
was simply the original nutrition norm based poverty
line of 1973 adjusted upwards by a consumer price
index, without ever asking the question whether this
index- adjusted 'poverty line' allowed people to obtain
the same level of nutrition as before.'' What the
direct estimates of nutritional intake indicate is
that poverty is much higher than such estimates, and
even the new, revised poverty estimates based on the
Tendulkar Committee methodology.
Chart
1 >> (Click
to Enlarge)
Thirdly, the figures depicted in the above chart show
that the average calorie intake per person per day
has fallen overtime. It fell in the rural areas from
2256 calories to 2153 calories between 1972-73 and
1993-94, recovered to 2149 calories in 1999-2000 and
then fell to a low of 2020 in 2009-10. The trend in
urban areas was slightly different. Calorie intake
per person per day declined marginally from 2107 to
2071 between 1972-73 and 1993-94, improved to 2156
in 1999-2000 and then fell sharply to 1946 in 2009-10.
In both cases there is reason to believe that changes
in the reference period adopted in the survey questionnaire
for 1999-2000 tended to impart an upward bias to the
estimate for that year and rendered the figure non-comparable
with previous and subsequent estimates. Hence the
picture seems to largely one of continuous decline
in average nutritional intake.
Finally, the NSS computes figures on the extent to
which nutritional intake falls short of or exceeds
the level of 2700 calories per consumer unit per day.
Those figures show that the calorific intake shortfall
has increased over time. The percentage of consumption
units in rural areas obtaining less than 80 per cent
of 2700 calories (which is 2160 calories) rose from
22.7 per cent in 1993-94 to 27.6 per cent in 2004-05
and 25.8 per cent in 2009-10. In urban areas the corresponding
figure rose from 26.6 per cent in 1993-94 to 28.2
per cent in 2004-05 before falling marginally to 27.7
per cent in 2009-10.
Thus, the detailed evidence on nutritional trends
yielded by the NSS Survey suggests that the extent
of malnutrition in India not only remains extremely
high, but is also increasing over time. It is in this
light that the need for a universal programme of distribution
of subsidised food through a strengthened public distribution
has to be assessed. The government, however, seems
to be dithering over implementation of even its much
diluted food security initiative on the grounds of
lack of resources. There is much scope for mobilising
additional resources in India, through better implementation
of existing tax laws, withdrawal of unnecessary tax
concessions and increases in tax rates. Rather than
looking to such measures the government is focused
on trimming expenditures on programmes aimed at ensuring
food security and generating employment. Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee recently stated at a conference on
public distribution that he is losing sleep thinking
of the rising subsidy bill on the government's budget.
Perhaps, he would do well by sparing a thought on
those sleepless nights for his countrymen who go to
bed without the minimum nourishment they need.
*
This article was originally published in the Hindu
on February 19, 2012 and is available at
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Chand
rasekhar/article2910006.ece
