Mathur Ritika Passi

comprehensive policy framework that
India needs to accelerate progress towards
achieving zero hunger. India has an
agrarian economy, where farmers constitute
a majority of rural population. Formulating
new policies that approach the issues of
food security and sustainable agriculture
holistically, and rectifying existing policies
to adopt the integrated SDG approach, can
lead to achieving the set targets by 2030.
Before deconstructing the relevant targets
in the Indian context, it is important to
assess India’s status on the international
measurement scales of hunger and
malnutrition. There are two principal ways
through which hunger is measured: The
Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU),
monitored by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), and the Prevalence
of Underweight Children under five years
of age, monitored by the United Nations
Children’s Fund as well as the World Health
Organization. 10
On the basis of these measurements,
India ranked 55th out of 76 countries on
the 2014 Global Hunger Index, behind
its immediate neighbours Sri Lanka and
Nepal. 11 Moreover, according to the annual
FAO report, India is home to 194.6 million
undernourished people, the highest in the
world. This implies that over 15% of India’s
population is undernourished. The report
highlights that India’s economic growth has
not been inclusive, failing to translate into
higher food consumption or better diets
for its population. Additionally, the report
also indicates a serious urban-rural divide
in India, where the rural population is
primarily represented amongst the country’s
hungry and malnourished people. 12
Under India’s federal structure, where
state governments have many statespecific
schemes and are predominantly
responsible for the effective distribution of
public services, different states showcase
different levels of inequality. Currently, 12
states fall under the ‘alarming’ category
in the Global Hunger Index. Further, an
estimated 23 million children suffer from
malnourishment and are underweight.
India’s Integrated Child Development
Services Survey in 2014 also suggested that
there is a higher incidence of underweight
and malnourished children across states
like Bihar (54.9%), Andhra Pradesh (37%),
Uttar Pradesh (41.6%) and Rajasthan
(36.8%). 13
This widespread prevalence of hunger,
undernourishment and malnourishment,
especially among the vulnerable sections
of the population, can be attributed to
the widespread food insecurity at the
household and the individual level. 14 In
addition, the fact that India still struggles
with defining and measuring hunger and
malnutrition, often confusing the latter for
the former, is another reason behind India’s
moderate progress in this field.
Hunger and nutrition form part of the
broader, multidimensional concept of food
security, which involves three separate but
interrelated components—the availability,
consumption and absorption of food.
The absorbed food is then measured as
nutrition. According to the FAO, “[f]ood
security exists when all people, at all times,
have physical, social and economic access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food
that meets their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life.” 15
Hence, a country cannot hope to achieve
food security by focusing on producing
sufficient food; food has to be made
available for consumption at the household
level and its absorption has to be ensured.
Poor hygiene, unsafe water and sanitation
facilities, as well as public defecation
sometimes restrict the absorption of food in
cases where it is available.
The Indian paradox regarding food security
and malnutrition can be understood as
thus: In terms of food production, India has
achieved self-sufficiency; however, policies
and mechanisms to make food available
to all sections of the society have not
functioned optimally due to several reasons.
For example, India’s food exports until
recently have been high, which has
affected food availability in the country.
Concurrently, there has been a decline in
agricultural growth since the mid-1990s,
which has also impacted on the livelihoods
of many. There has therefore been a steady
decline in the net per capita food grain
availability in the post-economic reforms
period of 1991 to 2007. The levels fell
from 501 grams per day in 1991 to only
443 grams per day in 2007. 16 However,
with India’s recent stand at the WTO to
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