India’s Declining Calorie Intake: Development or Distress?

Abstract

The analysis of food consumption data from successive rounds of the National Sample Survey (NSS), from 1993–1994 to 2009–2010, has shown that through the greater part of the post-liberalisation era India has seen a steadily declining level of calorie intake. This phenomenon is often attributed to increasing prosperity, declining morbidity and technological advancements that reduce hard manual labour and, hence, human energy requirement. The validity of this interpretation, however, becomes doubtful with the latest NSS data of 2011–2012 which have shown a noticeable increase of calorie intake. Using data from these NSS rounds, we attempt to make direct estimates of food consumption by different social sections in India. Our findings on declining calorie intakes, even among the poor who already have a very low calorie intake, strongly point towards increasing levels of undernourishment because of reduced access to food for a majority of people. We argue that the redistributive policies that have led to an improvement in food and calorie intake in 2011–2012 must be strengthened rather than undermined.