Poverty, nutrition and health: What recent surveys tell us

The National Statistical Office has brought out a factsheet on the primary findings of the Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23. According to it, the poverty rate in India declined to below 5 percent in 2022-23. Post-COVID, while the economy was still grappling with slow recovery and there was hue and cry from every segment of the population about the poor performance of the macroeconomic indicators, HCES showed a decline in the poverty rate.

Although the factsheet shows that the Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) increased from Rs. 1430 in 2011-12 to Rs. 3773 in 2022-23, the share of food items in total MPCE has been going down continuously since 2009-10 for both rural and urban India. This effectively means that households are spending proportionately less on food. One may argue that the absolute amount spent on food might be sufficient to cater to the needs of the population, and now, an additional amount is left in their hands to diversify their commodity basket.

However, India’s performance in fighting against hunger conveys the opposite. India ranks 111 out of 125 countries on the Global Hunger Index and its hunger level is categorized as ‘serious’. Despite various interventions by the government, undernutrition continues to be a persistent problem. Data from the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-5) reveals the extent of the problem: the prevalence of stunting among children under 5 years of age and underweight are 35.5 and 32.1 percent, respectively.

Although there is an improvement, it is minimal and emphasises on an urgent need to address it. Similarly, the corresponding figures for children who are severely stunted (15.1 percent in NFHS-5 vs.16.3 percent in NFHS-4) and severely underweight (10.6 percent in NFHS-5 vs.11 percent in NFHS-4) have not shown much improvement. More children are anaemic (67 percent in NFHS-5 vs. 58.4 percent in NFHS-4).

The problem of undernutrition is not restricted to children alone. The survey observed that more than half the women in the age group 15-49 years had anaemia and a greater prevalence was observed in adolescents between 15-19 years. These figures have increased, raising questions about the effectiveness of interventions and the need for comprehensive interventions. Nutritional interventions are important from a life course perspective as they not only impact the current generation but future generations also and are crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target of “zero hunger”.

There are a number of direct nutrition intervention schemes launched by the Government of India, like Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0, targeting children, mothers, and adolescent girls; food subsidy scheme targeting poor and marginalised populations; PM POSHAN for school children; and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) for pregnant women, to name a few. Allocation for these direct nutrition intervention programs is of the utmost importance for these to be implemented effectively.

The finance minister, in her budget speech, mentioned that upgrading Anganwadi Centres would be the priority, which means that a significant part of the budget would be directed towards this. The allocation for direct nutrition intervention programs, like Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0, is around Rs 21,200 crore for FY 2024-25, which is 1.5 percent less than the previous (revised) budget for 2023-24. The food subsidy program witnessed a significant and continuous decline in budgetary allocation and expenditure during the second term of the current government. Expenditure on food subsidies has gone down from Rs 5,41,330 crore (Actual) in 2020-21 to Rs 2,05,250 crore (Budget Estimates) in 2024-25, which is likely to impact the food security of the disadvantaged sections of the population and compound the problem of undernutrition.

Another important nutrition program, PM POSHAN, previously known as Mid-Day-Meal program, received an allocation of Rs 12,467.39 crore in 2024-25 slightly less than the actual amount spent on the program in FY 2022-23. Since the enrolment of students in government schools saw an increase in 2021-22 compared to the previous year, if a similar trend continues, then this allocation may be inadequate. This can have serious implications on the quantity and quality of food served as part of the program. Triangulating the HCES data using other sources of information reinforces the importance of government intervention in nutritional programs.

Bevin Vinay Kumar V N and Mampi Bose are faculty at Azim Premji University.

 

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