Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Urban India, 2010 - M. S. ...

sanitation ratio is one toilet seat per 500 inhabitants’
(Sridhar 2006). Urban poverty in Mumbai, it has
also been observed, was ‘...characterised by nearly
70 per cent households living in flimsy shacks
and temporary dwellings, 2m x 2m housing space
per person, 28 LPCD water consumption, 1.5
per cent households having access to sewer and
only half of the people having access to toilets.
Similarly, health status was shown as nearly 11 per
cent people sick at any point of time; and TB and
asthma patients numbering as many as 18 and 11
per thousand population respectively. The annual
(number of) cases of water-related diseases such
as diarrhoea, typhoid and malaria is estimated
as 614,68,126 per thousand of population
respectively’ (Karn et al. 2003). More generally,
it is known that only about 18.5 per cent of the
urban poor have access to piped water at home as
compared to 62.2 per cent of the “urban not poor”
and less than half of urban poor households have
sanitary facilities (NFHS 2007).
It has been suggested that ‘although the
recent urban growth was much higher than in the
past, not only was this associated with increased
urban inequality but also many urban areas failed
to offer either linkage to their rural hinterlands or
escape for the rural poor. This suggests that urban
poverty is a phenomenon in itself, rather than a
mere overflow of rural poverty’ (Awasthi et al.
2009). Child, infant and neonatal survival among
the urban poor was similar to those of the rural
population. In many States, undernutrition among
urban poor children was worse than in rural areas
(Agarwal and Sangar 2005).
During the period of economic reforms in
India, it is clear that the annual compound rate of
growth of GDP since 1991 has been impressive at
over 6 per cent. However, with increasing urban
inequality, it appears that urban poverty has not
declined significantly. What can be said about the
trends in food security during this period?
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 7
1.2.5 Urban Livelihoods: Dominance of
the Informal Sector
The overall global food security situation has
worsened in recent years and the trend of decline in
the number of hungry persons has been reversed. In
most developing countries, there has been a rise in
the number of undernourished persons, with only a
few countries such as China and Vietnam showing
significant absolute decline (FAO 2009). Within
this context, urban food security has also become
a greater challenge than earlier. In an analysis of
nationally representative consumption/expenditure
surveys from ten African countries, the percentage
of the population found to be energy deficient
surprisingly turned out to be higher in urban areas
in six of the ten countries studied (Ruel and Garrett
2004).
Urban areas typically have more retail
outlets and average urban incomes make stocking
of food viable. This may generally imply that
physical availability of food is not a critical issue
in urban settings except when there is severe
overall physical shortage and unavailability in the
economy as a whole. However, both access and
absorption pose serious challenges for urban food
security.
The two most important factors that
determine the access of a household to food
are household income and prevailing prices of
essentials. Income, in turn, depends on ownership
and utilisation of productive assets as well as on
access to remunerative employment.
It is well recognised that even in many
economies experiencing rapid rates of GDP
growth, the accompanying urbanisation does not
automatically translate into similar growth in
better-paid and more stable employment. It has
been pointed out that in most urban areas, ‘…
employment opportunities in the informal sector are
growing, while those in the formal sector are rapidly