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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 15 August: Freedom from Hunger? -Subodh Varma

15 August: Freedom from Hunger? -Subodh Varma

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published Published on Aug 17, 2018   modified Modified on Aug 17, 2018
-Newsclick.in

Food grain availability for Indians has increased by just 3.3% since 1961.

On this 72nd Independence Day of our India, while there will be the usual speeches and festivities, spare a thought to this shocking bit of news: average availability of food grains for every Indian has increased by 3.3% since 1961. Food grains includes wheat, rice, other cereals and pulses. Among these, per person availability of pulses has actually declined by about 10% since 1961.

This should be a sobering thought for everybody whether in the cut-throat world of politics or not. It raises uncomfortable questions of what the priorities of India’s development path are, whether successive govts. have been up to the task of freeing the country from want and hunger and should true nationalism or patriotism not be concerned with this rather than symbolism.

per capita foodgrains
Let us dwell for a moment on these numbers, derived from annual Economic Surveys of the govt. and a recent release by the agriculture ministry. Availability does not mean consumption. It means the total amount available after taking into account damage or wastage, use as seeds, exports and imports. Consumption may be even less.

Also, this is an average. It hides, like all averages, the differences between what a rich family will be getting and what a poor one will get. This difference will be quite significant. The poor, which run into millions even by the govt.’s ridiculously low poverty line, get to consume these life-giving food grains much less than the rich. Average nutritional intake among the poorest 5% of the population was just 1633 Kcal in rural areas and 1637 Kcal in urban areas, revealed an NSSO report for 2011-12, the last of its kind. The richest 5% of the population consumes 2233 Kcal in rural areas and 2206 Kcal in urban areas on an average.

As the chart above shows, the highest availability level of 510 grams per day (gpd) was reached in 1991. Since then, it has come down to 484 gpd, a dip of about 5%. Since 1961, availability of pulses – one of the key sources of proteins for Indians – has declined from 69 gpd to 54.5 gpd.

It is true that while looking at nutritional intake of Indians, other food items too need to be considered, like eggs and milk, availability of both of which has increased significantly since Independence. But surveys indicate that this replacement of foodgrains by say, milk or eggs, is highly exaggerated by both govt. propaganda and public perception. Contributions of these items to nutritional intake are not increasing much over the past three decades, despite enormous increase in production.

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Newsclick.in, 14 August, 2018, https://www.newsclick.in/15-august-freedom-hunger


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