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NSSO figures call Narendra Modi's bluff on malnutrition -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India

Malnutrition

Whichever way you slice and dice the data, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's statement about causes of malnutrition in the state he has been ruling for over a decade is wrong. In an interview to the Wall Street Journal, Modi had said malnutrition exists in Gujarat because it is "by and large a vegetarian state" and also because it is a middle class state which is "more beauty conscious than health conscious".

So he was implying that vegetarians are more likely to be undernourished, and pursuit of beauty will lead to undernourishment and bad health.

He also raises a doubt over earlier figures saying "we still have to measure, conduct surveys". He was referring to the National Family Health Survey 3 conducted in 2005-06 which found that among children under 3 years of age in Gujarat, 42.4% were stunted, 17% were wasted and 47.4% were underweight. It also found that a shocking 80% of children between 6-35 months old were anaemic. Over 55% of ever-married women between 15-49 years of age were anaemic, while 61% of pregnant women in the same age group were anaemic. Among men of the same age group, 22% were anemic.

But here are some facts from surveys carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2009-2010, published earlier this year.

The survey on consumer expenditure by households shows that in urban Gujarat 60% of the population spends less than the state average of Rs 1,909 per month per head, which is lower than the national average of Rs 1,984 per month per head. In rural Gujarat too, 60% of the population spends less than the state average of Rs 1,110 per capita, which is slightly higher than the national average of Rs 1,054. With about two out of three Gujaratis spending less than the state norm which is itself lower or only slightly higher than the national average, it is a far stretch to call Gujarat a middle-class state.

Another NSSO report, on nutritional intake, shows that the people of Gujarat are eating worse than before, and it is poverty that is causing this. In Gujarat's rural areas, the average daily calorific intake was 1,982 Kcal, slightly down from 1,986 Kcal in 1999-2000, and substantially down from 2,142 Kcal in 1972-73, according to the report. In urban areas, the calorific intake was 1,983 Kcal, down from 2,058 Kcal in 1999-2000, and again substantially down from 2,172 Kcal in 1972-73.

This shows that the average intake of food in Gujarat is declining steadily, and in rural areas it is now considerably lower than even the national average of 2,020 kcal. Further analysis of Gujarat's data shows that in rural areas, a whopping 62% of households are below the recommended norm of 2,700 Kcal per day. This is worse than the 52% national average. In urban areas too, 56% of households are below the norm in Gujarat compared to 54% at the national level.

So, people in Gujarat, on an average, are not getting enough nutrition even in recent years. That this has nothing to do with vegetarianism or "beauty-consciousness" driven dieting by women is clear if you look at average food intake across income levels: the poorer a family, the less nutrition they are getting.

Thus, average daily intake in urban Gujarat is shockingly low for the poorest 10% of households at just 1,484 Kcal per person, while in the richest 10% households it is more than double at 2,971 Kcal per person. The situation is similar in rural areas: households in the poorest income decile get 1,430 Kcal while the richest get 2,777 Kcal. Going by Modi's interpretation, it would seem the poorest are most beauty conscious, not the richest.

It is true that Gujarat is a largely vegetarian state. Only about 2% of the average protein intake among people living in Gujarat comes from eggs, meat and fish in both rural and urban areas, compared to the all-India average of 6% in rural areas and 8% in urban areas. But here's the catch: consumption of non-vegetarian food is higher among the richer sections compared to the poorer sections.

For the households in the poorest 10% income category, only 0.4% of protein is derived from non-vegetarian items in rural Gujarat compared to 1.6% for the richest 10%. In urban areas, the poorest get 1.6% of their protein from non-vegetarian food while the rich are not too different getting 1.9%. But the urban middle class - which Modi talks about - gets 2% to 3.5% of proteins from non-vegetarian food items. But this is mainly because Muslims are concentrated in urban centers and they are mostly non-vegetarian.

What this means is that Gujaratis are making up their protein requirements from increased milk and pulses consumption. But contrary to Modi's claim, the "beauty conscious" richer sections are actually less vegetarian than the poorer sections. Incidentally, Haryana, a state which is even more predominantly vegetarian than Gujarat, has better nutritional figures.

Clearly, Modi's claims about vegetarianism and dieting fads being responsible for the state's nutritional indices do not square with the data. Whether they will wash with his target audience is another matter.