Message from latest nutrition numbers: Food security law is flawed, rework it now

Is India finally beginning to reverse what has been often touted as its nutritional deficit?

Since 1993-94, there had been a decline in the consumption of calories and proteins, causing much angst about Indians not eating better in post-liberalisation era despite rising prosperity.

Rural Indians were consuming 2,153 kcal (the unit in which calorie consumption is measured) every day in 1993-94 and this had fallen to 2,147 kcal in 2009-10. In the case of urban Indians, the calorie consumption has fluctuated between these two time points - it was 2,089 kcal in 1993-94 and rose, fell and rose again to stand at 2,123 kcal in 2009-10.

As for proteins, consumption in rural India came down from 60.2 grams a day in 1993-94 to 55 grams in 2009-10, while in urban India consumption fell from 57.2 grams to 53.5 grams over the same period.

The latest Nutritional Intake in India 2011-12 report by the National Sample Survey Organization shows this declining trend has at least been arrested, if not reversed.

Per capita calorie consumption in rural India went up to 2,233 kcal in 2011-12 and to 2,206 kcal in urban India. Protein consumption saw the same trend - it went up to 56.5 grams in rural India and 55.7 grams in urban India.

Incidentally, consumption of fat never went down at any point - it rose steadily from 31.4 grams per person per day to 41.6 grams between 1993-94 and 2011-12 in rural areas and from 42 grams to 52.5 grams in urban areas over the same period.

The survey divides households into four broad classes of calorie intake, corresponding to a certain percentage of the ideal consumption level of 2,700 kcal per consumer unit a day (this is an indicator of the energy requirement of a group of persons of different sexes and ages).

The four categories are below 80 (energy intake of less than 80 percent of 2,700 calories, or 2,160 kcal per consumer unit per day), 80-100, 100-120 and above 120 (3,240 kcal per consumer unit per day, or 120 percent of 2,700 calories).

The good news here is that the proportion of households in the under-nourished category fell from 22.7 percent to 19.8 percent between 1993-94 and 2011-12 in the rural areas and from 26.6 percent to 22.9 percent in the urban areas. (Of course, calorie consumption among the poorer households was much lower than in richer households.)

So did the proportion of households in the over-nourished category - from 25.6 percent in 1993-94 to 18.8 percent in 2011-12 in the rural areas and from 21.2 per cent to 18.3 per cent. The 2011-12 figure in this category is higher than the 2009-10 figure, which was 16 percent in the rural areas and 15.6 percent in the urban areas). The proportion of households in the two middle categories has steadily increased - from 51.1 percent to 61.4 percent in rural India and from 52.3 percent to 58.7 percent in urban India.

Interestingly, while cereals are the most common source of calories, their share in calorie intake has been declining - it was 71 percent in 1993-94 and has fallen to 61 percent in rural areas. In the urban areas, its share has dropped from 58 percent to 51 percent (except in poorer households in urban and rural areas, where cereals still provide the bulk of calories).

So people have been getting their calories from other food groups (roots and tubers; pulses, nuts, oilseeds; meat, eggs and fish; milk and milk products; oils and fats) whose share has been increasing. The only exceptions are fruits and vegetables (the share of which has declined in both rural and urban areas) and sugar and honey (the share of which has fallen in urban areas).

The contribution of cereals in protein consumption is also falling in both urban and rural areas (from 69 percent to 62 percent in the former and from 59 percent to 53 percent in the latter between 1993-94 and 2011-12). Pulses, milk and milk products, eggs, fish and meat and other food are taking their place in providing proteins to people.

There are two messages from these findings.

One relates to calorie consumption as a measure of nutrition and poverty estimation. The per capita calorie consumption figures for rural areas in this survey are lower than the 2,400 kcal norm set for estimating poverty. (The poverty line is set at the minimum consumption expenditure required to meet a certain norm of per capita per day calorie consumption)

But even the 2400 kcal norm was set in the late 1970s. Pronab Sen, chairman of the National Statistical Commission, points out that calorie requirements are driven by age, sex and occupation and that calorie needs and intake have been going down across income groups.

In any case, says economist Surjit Bhalla, nutrition levels have little to do with food consumed and are affected equally by factors like poor sanitation and the quality of drinking water. So a person can be eating the prescribed quantity of foods for the required level of calories and still be under-nourished because of other factors.

This was also a point the Suresh Tendulkar Committee on estimating poverty had made, and it had moved away from a calorie-consumption based estimation. The C. Rangarajan expert committee advocated going back to this method and had set a norm of 2,155 kcal for rural areas and 2,090 kcal for urban areas, but that report hasn’t been accepted yet. Perhaps it is time to take a fresh look at how we estimate poverty.

Two, the findings show the flawed approach of the National Food Security Act, with its focus on cereal consumption. If the share of cereals in calorie and protein consumption is falling relative to other food groups and there are significant variations among states, should people and states not be given a choice in how they want to consume calories and proteins?

The share of calories from cereals varies from 69 percent in rural Odisha to 41 percent in urban Gujarat, while the share of non-cereals varies from 60 percent in urban Haryana to 33 percent in rural Assam.

Yes, the survey shows the poor are still dependent on cereals for both these nutrients, but successive consumer expenditure surveys show that the share of food (and within that of cereals, relative to protein-rich foods) have been declining even in the spending patterns of the poor.

In fact, this only strengthens the case for cash transfers, junking the leaky, hard-to-reform public distribution system. With only the number of states that have implemented the Act still stuck at 11, it is time someone sees reason and reworks the law.

Seetha is a senior journalist and author