Poverty, Hunger and Food Security: Measurement, PDS and Nutrition

Poverty and hunger: linked but distinct

GS Paper 2 lists "issues relating to poverty and hunger". Poverty is a lack of the resources and capabilities needed for a minimum standard of living. Hunger covers undernourishment (insufficient calories), micronutrient deficiency ("hidden hunger": iron, iodine, vitamin A, zinc) and undernutrition in children (stunting, wasting, underweight). A household can be above the income poverty line and still be malnourished because of poor diet diversity, sanitation or childcare practices.

Measuring poverty in India

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) follows the global method of UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). It measures deprivations in nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank accounts. NITI Aayog's report (2023) estimated that about 13.5 crore people exited multidimensional poverty between 2015–16 and 2019–21, with the largest declines in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022–23, the first official consumption survey since 2011–12, became available in 2024. It has revived debate on poverty lines. Present any estimate based on it as an estimate by a particular author, not an official line, because India has not officially adopted a new poverty line since Tendulkar and Rangarajan.

Food security: concept and history

The FAO defines food security as existing when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. It has four dimensions: availability, access, utilisation and stability.

India's journey:

• Bengal famine (1943): the trauma of the famine shaped post-independence policy.
• 1960s: food shortages and the PL-480 imports from the US.
• Green Revolution (from the mid-1960s): high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, irrigation and fertilisers raised output.
• Institutions (1965): the Food Corporation of India and the Agricultural Prices Commission (later the CACP) were created.
• PDS evolution: the universal PDS was followed by the Targeted PDS (1997), with separate prices for APL and BPL households, and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (2000) for the poorest of the poor.
• 2001 onward: PIL in *PUCL v Union of India* (the "right to food case") converted schemes into entitlements.
• 2013: the National Food Security Act.

National Food Security Act 2013

• Covers up to 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population (about two-thirds overall), with state-wise coverage set by the Centre.
• Priority households get 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month. AAY households get 35 kg per household per month.
• Prices were fixed at ₹3/2/1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains. They were made free from January 2023 under PMGKAY, which was extended for five years from 2024.
• Maternity benefit of at least ₹6,000.
• Children aged 6 months to 14 years get meals under ICDS and the mid-day meal scheme.
• The eldest woman (18 or older) is the head of the household for ration cards.
• Grievance redress: District Grievance Redressal Officers and State Food Commissions.
• Food security allowance if grain is not supplied.
• Transparency through social audits and vigilance committees.

PDS reforms

• End-to-end computerisation, digitisation of ration cards and Aadhaar seeding, which removed duplicate and ineligible cards.
• ePoS devices at fair price shops for biometric authentication.
• One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) enables portability across states, which is crucial for migrants.
• Rice fortification: fortified rice with iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 was rolled out through PDS, ICDS and PM POSHAN in phases ending in 2024.
• Alternatives debated: cash transfers instead of grain. A DBT pilot was tried in Chandigarh, Puducherry and Dadra & Nagar Haveli in 2015, with mixed results.

Leakages: studies estimated very high leakage in the 2000s, but leakages fell substantially in states that reformed PDS early, such as Chhattisgarh, which became a model for universalisation and community-run shops. The Shanta Kumar Committee (2015) on restructuring the FCI recommended reducing NFSA coverage to about 40%, decentralised procurement, cash transfers and better grain storage. Many of these recommendations were not adopted.

Nutrition: the persisting challenge

NFHS-5 (2019–21) data for children under five, compared with NFHS-4 (2015–16):

• Stunting: 38.4% → 35.5%
• Wasting: 21.0% → 19.3%
• Underweight: 35.8% → 32.1%
• Anaemia in children (6–59 months): 58.6% → 67.1%, a worrying rise

Interventions:

• POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018): convergence, technology (Poshan Tracker), Jan Andolan, and the annual Poshan Maah in September.
• Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
• Anaemia Mukt Bharat, using a 6x6x6 strategy.
• PM POSHAN.
• Millets: International Year of Millets 2023, promoted by India at the UN, and inclusion of millets in PDS.
• Food fortification.
• Eat Right India (FSSAI).

The Global Hunger Index debate: India ranks low in the GHI, which is published by European NGOs. The government has criticised the methodology because it relies on a small FAO undernourishment survey and gives weight to child indicators that are not purely caused by hunger. Answers should note the debate but also stress that child undernutrition, as measured by NFHS, is real and serious.

Practice: Mains question

*"India has achieved food security but not nutrition security." Critically examine. (250 words)*

Hints: record grain stocks and the NFSA versus NFHS-5 stunting and anaemia; diet diversity, WASH and women's status; the way forward through fortification, millets, convergence and the first 1,000 days.

Minimum Support Price, procurement and buffer stocks

Food security rests on procurement. The CACP recommends MSP for 22 mandated crops, plus a fair and remunerative price for sugarcane. The FCI and state agencies procure mainly wheat and rice. Decentralised procurement (DCP), in which states procure and distribute grain themselves, has been adopted by several states.

The Centre fixes buffer norms (separate norms for each quarter) for operational and strategic reserves. Stocks often exceed these norms, which raises storage costs and the food subsidy bill. The Open Market Sale Scheme sells surplus grain to moderate prices.

Critics argue that procurement is skewed towards a few states and towards cereals. This encourages water-intensive paddy in Punjab and Haryana and neglects pulses and millets. Supporters stress its role in price stability and in supplying the NFSA.

Global commitments

• SDG 2 (Zero Hunger): end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.
• WHO global nutrition targets for 2025: for example, a 40% reduction in the number of stunted children.
• At the WTO, India's public stockholding for food security is protected by a "peace clause" (Bali, 2013) against challenges for breaching subsidy limits. India seeks a permanent solution.

Quick self-test

1. *What are the four dimensions of food security?* Availability, access, utilisation and stability.
2. *Which state pioneered PDS reform that cut leakages?* Chhattisgarh.