Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
UNEP Food Waste Index Report, 2024
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Food Waste Index Report
Mains level: NA
Why in the news?
The Food Waste Index Report, 2024 was recently released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a UK based non-profit organization.
Food Waste Index Report:
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Key Findings of the 2024 Report
- Total Food Waste Generation in 2022:
- Globally, 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste were generated in 2022.
- Distribution of Food Waste by Sector:
- Households accounted for 60% of the total food waste.
- Food services were responsible for 28% of the total food waste.
- Retail accounted for 12% of the total food waste.
- Per Capita Food Waste:
- The average per capita food waste was 132 kilograms in 2022.
- Economic Cost of Food Waste:
- The economic toll of food loss and waste is estimated at $1 trillion.
- Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
- Food loss and waste contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 8-10% of annual global emissions.
- Regional Trends:
- Food waste levels vary minimally across income groups.
- Hotter climates tend to generate more household food waste due to consumption patterns and infrastructure limitations.
- Rural areas generally exhibit lower levels of food waste compared to urban areas.
- Policy Integration:
- Only 21 countries, including Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union, have included food loss and waste reduction in their climate plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
PYQ:2019: In India, ‘extended producer responsibility’ was introduced as an important feature in which of the following? (a) The Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 (b) The Recycled Plastic (Manufacturing and Usage) Rules, 1999 (c) The e-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 (d) The Food Safety and Standard Regulations, 2011
Practice MCQ:Which of the following statements is correct about the Food Waste Index Report? (a) It tracks only the global generation of food waste at the retail level. (b) It was first launched in 2011 to monitor progress towards reducing food waste in households and food service sectors. (c) It is a tool aimed at monitoring progress towards international targets outlined in SDG 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030. (d) It primarily focuses on tracking inedible parts wasted at the industrial level. |
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
Mother, child and the Poshan Tracker
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Poshan Tracker APP
Mains level: Malnutrition and health
What is poshan tracker?
Poshan Tracker is a centralized ICT-enabled platform developed by the Government of India, serving as the largest mobile nutrition monitoring system globally. Embraced by 1.3 million Anganwadi workers, it collects real-time data on the height and weight of 72 million children under five, aiming to address malnutrition challenges through transparency, accountability, and targeted interventions in the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) sector.
Key Facts:
- Poshan Tracker is the largest mobile nutrition monitoring system globally, adopted by 1.3 million Anganwadi workers in India within two years.
- It collects height and weight data for 72 million children under five, representing over 50% of the population, with 94% Aadhar verification.
- The system includes modules for beneficiary registration, growth monitoring, migration facility, dashboard for underperforming districts, and a portal for reporting community engagements.
- Poshan Tracker serves as a real-time feedback loop for frontline workers, aiding in early identification of malnutrition and monitoring service delivery.
- The data captured includes information on Anganwadi infrastructure, beneficiaries receiving rations and meals, and nutritional outcomes at national, state, and district levels.
Key Terms:
- Poshan Tracker: The centralized ICT-enabled platform developed by the Government of India for nutrition monitoring, promoting transparency and accountability in service delivery.
- Anganwadi Workers (AWCs): Frontline workers in India responsible for implementing Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) at the community level.
- Aadhar Verification: The process of confirming the identity of beneficiaries using the Aadhar system, ensuring accuracy in data.
- Feedback Loop: A continuous cycle of collecting, analyzing, and applying feedback to improve the user-friendliness and effectiveness of the monitoring system.
- Granularity: The level of detail in data, addressing variability in malnutrition rates and providing localized, observed information.
Key Data:
- 72 Million Children: Height and weight data collected for this number, representing over 50% of children under five in India.
- 94% Aadhar Verified: High percentage of beneficiaries whose identities are verified through Aadhar, ensuring data accuracy.
- 1.3 Million Anganwadi Workers: Universal adoption of Poshan Tracker among these frontline workers.
- Underperforming Districts: A dashboard monitors key performance indicators in selected underperforming districts.
- 80% Accuracy Improvement: Similar mobile apps in Indonesia improved accuracy of growth monitoring, particularly for underweight children, by 80% on average.
Key Highlights:
- Unprecedented Scale: Poshan Tracker is the largest mobile nutrition monitoring system globally, with universal adoption by 1.3 million Anganwadi workers in India within two years.
- Real-Time Monitoring: It collects height and weight data for 72 million children under five, representing over 50% of the population, providing real-time monitoring and 94% Aadhar verification.
- Comprehensive Dashboard: Captures data on Anganwadi infrastructure, beneficiaries receiving rations and meals, and nutritional outcomes at national, state, and district levels.
- Feedback Loop: Acts as a feedback loop for frontline workers, aiding in early identification of malnutrition, targeting at-risk beneficiaries, and monitoring service delivery.
- Modules: Various modules include beneficiary registration, growth monitoring, migration facility, dashboard for underperforming districts, and a portal for reporting community engagements on nutrition.
Challenges and Concerns:
- Data Quality Doubts: Global experience raises concerns about the quality of monitoring data; the accuracy of Poshan Tracker data is a critical consideration.
- Timeliness: Paper-based reporting is time-consuming, and while Poshan Tracker enables real-time transmission, the challenge lies in maintaining this speed and efficiency.
- User Overburden: Anganwadi workers are overburdened; ensuring Poshan Tracker’s user-friendliness through feedback and ongoing training is crucial for sustainability.
Analysis:
- Accuracy Improvement: Studies show mobile apps improve accuracy; Poshan Tracker’s automatic calculations can reduce errors and provide more reliable data than manual methods.
- Granularity: Poshan Tracker’s granularity addresses the variability in malnutrition rates, providing decision-makers with on-the-ground, observed data for timely action.
- Timely Intervention: Real-time data transmission enables faster government response and quicker retrieval of information at the Anganwadi level, saving time for nutritional promotion activities.
Way Forward:
- Continuous Feedback: Regular updates based on Anganwadi workers’ feedback are essential to ensure the system’s user-friendliness.
- Skill-Building: Ongoing skill-building and technical assistance are crucial for the sustainability of the monitoring system.
- Actionable Outcomes: Recognizing data as a tool, investments should focus on delivering essential services promptly when malnutrition is detected.
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
India ranks 111/125 in Global Hunger Index, 2023
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index
Mains level: Read the attached story
Central Idea
- India has been ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index-2023, a stark decline from its 107th position in 2022.
- The index highlights a concerning statistic – India reports the world’s highest child wasting rate at a staggering 18.7 percent.
- Interestingly, India’s neighboring countries, including Pakistan (102nd), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th), and Sri Lanka (60th), have performed comparatively better in the index.
Global Hunger Index (GHI) |
|
| Publication | Jointly published annually by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe. |
| Scale | Measures hunger on a 100-point scale, with 0 as the best (no hunger) and 100 as the worst score. |
| Purpose | Comprehensively measures and tracks hunger globally, regionally, and at the country level. Aims to trigger action to reduce hunger worldwide. |
| Indicators | 4 key indicators for each country:
1. Undernourishment (reflects inadequate food availability): Share of the population that is undernourished. 2. Child Wasting (reflects acute undernutrition): Share of children under five with low weight for their height. 3. Child Stunting (reflects chronic undernutrition): Share of children under five with low height for their age. 4. Child Mortality (reflects inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): Mortality rate of children under five. |
Hunger in India: Fact Check
- Serious Hunger Levels: India’s score of 28.7 in the Global Hunger Index-2023 places it in the “serious” category, according to the report.
- Child Wasting: India’s child wasting rate, the proportion of undernourished children measured by weight relative to their height, stands at an alarming 18.7 percent, signaling acute undernutrition.
- Undernourishment Rate: The rate of undernourishment in India is reported at 16.6 percent, further highlighting the gravity of the issue.
- Child Mortality: Under-five mortality in India is recorded at 3.1 percent.
- Anemia Among Women: The report underscores a significant concern, with 58.1 percent of women aged 15 to 24 in India being affected by anemia.
A report to bully India
- Disputed Ranking: The Indian government has rejected the GHI 2023 ranking, citing serious methodological concerns and suggesting a malicious intent behind the report (considering elections).
- Methodological Issues: The WCD Ministry asserts that the GHI 2023 report suffers from significant methodological issues. It contends that 3 out of 4 indicators used for calculation pertain to child health, which does not represent the entire population.
- Sample size issue: It is questionable that only small sample size of 3,000 is used for the “Proportion of Undernourished Population” indicator for crores population in India.
- Child Wasting Discrepancy: The ministry highlights a significant disparity between the child wasting rate as per the Poshan Tracker (consistently below 7.2 percent) and the 18.7 percent reported in GHI 2023.
- Undue link with Child mortality: It also challenges the notion that child mortality is solely an outcome of hunger.
Conclusion
- India’s ranking underscores the persistent challenges in addressing hunger and undernutrition.
- The report serves as a stark reminder of the critical need to comprehensively tackle these issues, especially child wasting and undernourishment, to ensure the well-being of the nation’s population.
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
The State Hunger Index (SHI)
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index,
Mains level: GHI, Subnational Analysis, India's Calorie Undernourishment challenge, efforts and way forward
What’s the news?
- Despite boasting the world’s largest public distribution system and comprehensive food security schemes, India’s standing on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) remains alarming.
Central idea
- The 2022 GHI ranked India a staggering 107 out of 121 nations, trailing behind Nigeria (103) and Pakistan (99). The GHI, encompassing calorie undernourishment, child malnutrition, and under-five mortality dimensions, highlights India’s ongoing battle against these challenges.
Extent of the Issue
- The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report for 2022 reveals a staggering statistic – India is home to approximately 224.3 million undernourished individuals.
- Alarming disparities surface among various states, prompting the utilization of subnational data to develop a more nuanced and localized hunger index.
- By harnessing such data, India can assess the extent of undernourishment at the state and union territory level, a crucial step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals aimed at eradicating hunger and malnutrition.
The State Hunger Index (SHI)
- Indicators: The SHI is derived from the Global Hunger Index (GHI) framework, utilizing four main indicators:
- Prevalence of stunting, wasting, and under-five mortality among children below five years of age.
- Body Mass Index (BMI) undernourishment among the working-age population.
- Calorie Undernourishment Replacement: Calorie undernourishment, a GHI indicator, is replaced by BMI undernourishment due to data unavailability post-2012.
- Data Sources: SHI calculations involve data from various sources, including:
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5)
- Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI)
- Calculation: Normalized values of the indicators are combined using techniques recommended by the GHI.
- Score Range and Categories:
- SHI scores range from 0 to 100.
- Higher scores indicate higher hunger levels.
- The categories of SHI scores are as follows:
- Below 10: Low hunger
- 10-20: Moderate hunger
- 20-30: Serious hunger
- 30-40: Alarming hunger
- 50 or above: Extremely alarming hunger
Findings of the State Hunger Index (SHI)
- Alarming Hunger Levels: States like Bihar, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh have alarmingly high SHI scores of 35, indicating significant hunger levels.
- Moderate Hunger Levels: States such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Maharashtra, and West Bengal score above the national average (29), indicating moderate hunger levels.
- Lower Hunger Levels: Chandigarh stands out with a notably low SHI score of 12, suggesting relatively lower hunger levels.
- Moderate Hunger Category: States like Sikkim, Puducherry, and Kerala have SHI scores below 16, placing them in the ‘moderate hunger’ category.
- Serious Hunger Concerns: Several states score below the national average but above 20, pointing to serious hunger challenges in these regions.
Calorie Undernourishment: A Critical Challenge
- Deteriorating GHI Score: Over the past few years, India’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) score has worsened primarily due to the increasing prevalence of calorie undernourishment. This underscores the urgent need to address this challenge effectively.
- Escalating Proportions: Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization reveals that the proportion of calorie undernourishment has been on the rise since 2017, reaching a concerning 16.3% in 2020. This trend mirrors statistics from over a decade ago, such as those from 2009.
- Government Disputes and Data Concerns: Despite these alarming figures, the Indian government has raised doubts about the accuracy of the data and methodologies employed in calculating the GHI. However, the absence of empirical evidence to support these disputes leaves room for further clarity.
- Data Limitations: Notably, a challenge in understanding the scale of calorie undernourishment stems from the lack of recent National Sample Survey (NSS) rounds on nutritional intake since 2011-12. This survey previously offered insights into the prevalence of undernourishment at both national and subnational levels.
- Impact on Health and Development: Calorie undernourishment directly affects health and development, leading to weakened immune systems, stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and increased susceptibility to diseases.
- Economic and Social Implications: The persistence of calorie undernourishment has far-reaching socio-economic consequences, hindering productivity, reducing human capital potential, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
Way forward
- Urgent Focus on Calorie Undernourishment: Recognize the urgent need to address calorie undernourishment, which has contributed to India’s declining GHI score.
- Reviving NSS Rounds: Prioritize conducting new National Sample Survey (NSS) rounds on nutritional intake to obtain updated and accurate data on undernourishment levels.
- Evidence-Based Approach: Encourage the Indian government to substantiate their concerns about GHI data accuracy with empirical evidence.
- Collaborative Efforts: Collaborate between government agencies, NGOs, researchers, and communities to formulate and implement targeted strategies.
- Alignment with SDGs: Align efforts with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 2 focused on eradicating hunger and malnutrition.
Conclusion
- While the GHI is not immune to criticism regarding its methodology and aggregation techniques, it remains a critical tool for gauging undernourishment and child nutrition. Despite strides in reducing extreme poverty, disparities persist in addressing food insecurity, hunger, and child malnutrition. India must prioritize targeted interventions to overcome these challenges and fulfill its commitment to sustainable development.
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
Undernutrition: Healthy Human Capital Is The Real Wealth
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Stunting, wasting, Human capital Index
Mains level: Undernutrition a significant challenge
“Healthy women and children are pillars of a flourishing society”
Central Idea
- Undernutrition is a serious public health issue leading to adverse health consequences and affecting the economy, especially in India. Early stimulation and nutrition interventions in infants and young children lead to improved outcomes in adult life. India ranks poorly on the Human Capital Index and has high levels of stunting, anaemia, and malnutrition. Evidence suggests investing in maternal and early-life nutrition leads to high returns on investment.
Undernutrition leads to adverse health consequences and affects the economy
- Child deaths: Undernutrition leads to 3.1 million child deaths annually, which accounts for 45 percent of all child deaths.
- High levels of stunting In India: India has unacceptably high levels of stunting (35.5 percent), despite marginal improvement over the years.
- Stunting affects per capita income: Two-thirds of India’s current workforce is stunted, which has enormous economic costs in terms of a decrease in per capita income. The average reduction in per capita income for developing countries is at 7 percent, with a high of 13 percent for India due to the high rates of stunting.
- Wasting in India: The economic losses incurred by India due to wasting are estimated at more than US $48 billion in terms of lifetime lost productivity.
- Anaemia: Another compounding factor is anaemia among young women, at 57 percent, which has lasting effects on their future pregnancies and childbirth. The situation further worsens when infants are fed inadequate diets, and there is inadequate sanitation and hygiene.
Investing in the well-being of women and children is an effective strategy
- Investing in early childhood: Evidence suggests that every additional dollar invested in quality early childhood programs yields a return of between US$6 and US$17.
- Better income in future: Early stimulation in infants is known to increase their future earnings by 25 percent. Stunting in childhood leads to impaired brain development, lower cognitive skills and education, leading to lower incomes in the future.
- For instance: According to estimates, children who are stunted earn 20 percent less as adults than children who are not stunted.
Increased investment in human capital brings economic growth
- Human capital is the real wealth: The human capital is the wealth of nations and is dependent on the health, nutrition, skills, and knowledge of people.
- Effective strategy: Evidence suggests investing in the well-being of women and children as an effective strategy for improved outcomes for children.
- India’s ranking in Human capital Index: India ranks 116 out of 174 countries as per the Human Capital Index, with a score of 0.49 that indicates a child born in India will be 49 percent productive if provided with complete education and good health.
- Education: Education to children plays a pivotal role in amassing human capital, improving productivity, and economic development. It has been advocated to target the 1000 days’ period from conception to two years of age for improving birth and nutrition outcomes.
Coupling nutrition-specific interventions with nutrition-sensitive programs
- Nutrition-sensitive interventions: Nutrition-sensitive interventions like water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) focus on the underlying determinants as poor sanitation can lead to stunting.
- Integrated water and sanitation improvement program: Evidence suggests both short term and long-term reductions in diarrhoea episodes (3-50 percent) through an integrated water and sanitation improvement program in rural India. WASH can bring significant gains in tackling childhood undernutrition and are important determinants of stunting.
- Nutrition of pregnant women and young children: Studies suggest long term benefits on adult human capital and health by improving the nutrition of pregnant women and young children.
- For instance: The first 1000 days of life is the time for rapid growth and development, and lack of good nutrition can lead to lifelong adverse consequences. This period is a critical window of opportunity as stunting sets in during this period and aggravates by the age of two years.
Disparities in Undernutrition Prevalence
- Data (NFHS 5) reveals that India has more stunted children in rural areas as compared to urban areas, possibly due to socio-economic variance.
- Stunting prevalence varies depending on mother’s education and household income,
- There is wide variation among regions, with high rates of stunting in states of Meghalaya (46.5 percent) and Bihar (42.9 percent) while states like Sikkim and Puducherry have lowest at 22.3 percent and 20 percent respectively.
- Notable inter-state and inter-district variation in terms of stunting prevalence.
Way ahead
- Investing in healthcare facilities is crucial for enhancing productivity, economic growth, and security in India.
- Addressing undernutrition is necessary for producing and maintaining a healthy, highly skilled workforce in India.
- Cost-effective investments in child health, nutrition, and education are necessary for improving public health and achieving economic growth in India.
Conclusion
- Healthy human capital is the true wealth of any nation. In India, undernutrition is a significant public health concern that not only affects the well-being of women and children but also has adverse economic implications. Therefore, addressing undernutrition is critical for creating a healthy, skilled workforce, ensuring economic growth and security in India.
Mains Question
Q. What is India’s ranking on the Human Capital Index, and how does investing in the well-being of women and children contribute to economic growth?
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
Nutrition, Not Hunger Should Be the Priority
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index, NFHS report
Mains level: Issues with GHI parameters
Context
- The fountainhead is a 16-year-old German and Irish organization, which measures and ranks countries on a hunger index at the global, regional, and national levels, but not at the sub-national level where some Indian states fare better. The Global Hunger Index’s (GHI) stated aim is to reduce hunger around the world. But its methodology focuses disproportionately on less than five-year-old’s.
Problematic methodology of GHI
- Mixing the hunger and nutrition: In common parlance, hunger and nutrition are two different things. Hunger is associated with food scarcity and starvation. It produces images of emaciated people holding empty food bowls.
- Wrong data collection methods: GHI uses childhood mortality and nutrition indicators. But its preamble states “communities, civil society organizations, small producers, farmers, and indigenous groups shape how access to nutritious food is governed.”
- Irony of food grain availability: This suggests that GHI sees hunger as a food production challenge when, according to the FAO, India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of grain and the largest producer of milk; when the per capita intake of grain, vegetables and milk has increased manifold. It is, therefore, contentious and unacceptable to club India with countries facing serious food shortages, which is what GHI has done.
Data according to the latest National Family Health Survey Report
- Comparative state level data collection: The sensational use of the word hunger is abhorrent given the facts. But there is no denying that in India, nutrition, particularly child nutrition, continues to be a problem. Unlike the GHI, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) does a good job of providing comparative state-level data, including the main pointers that determine health and nutrition.
- Crucial health parameters included: NFHS provides estimates of underweight, (low weight for age), stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for height). These conditions affect preschool children (those less than 6 years of age) disproportionately and compromise a child’s physical and mental development while also increasing the vulnerability to infections.
- Undernourishment is included: Undernourished mothers (attributable to social and cultural practices,) give birth to low-birth-weight babies that remain susceptible to infections, transporting their handicaps into childhood and adolescence. NFHS includes undernourishment parameter.
Why nutrition is the best indicator of health?
- Link between nutrition and disease: There are links between the nutritional status of young children with the post-neonatal phase when children suffer from acute respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases. Sanitation and hygiene require much more work.
- Diet and food intake is important: Professor V Subramanian at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health writes, “There is a need to declutter the current approaches to child undernutrition by keeping it simple. I advise against a disproportionate focus on anthropometry (body measurements); instead, the need is to have a direct engagement with actual diet and food intake.”
How to overcome the child nutrition challenge?
- Improving the breast feeding: The first child nutrition challenge relates to breastfeeding. The WHO and UNICEF recommend that breastfeeding should be initiated within the first hour of birth and infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months. According to NFHS 5, in India, the percentage improvement of children who were exclusively breastfed when under six months, rose from 55 per cent in NFHS 4 to 64 per cent in NFHS 5. That is progress, but it is not enough. By not being breastfed, an infant is denied the benefits of acquiring antibodies against infections, allergies and even protection against several chronic conditions.
- Better nutritional practice: The second issue relates to young child feeding practices. At root are widespread practices like not introducing semi-solid food after six months, prolonging breastfeeding well beyond the recommended six months and giving food lacking in nutritional diversity. NFHS 5 shows that the improvement has been marginal over the last two reports and surprisingly, states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, UP and Gujarat are at the tail end.
- Continuation of nutrition programmes: Almost one dozen nutrition programmes have been under implementation since 1975. Several more have been added of late, but most beneficiaries of these food distribution programmes are kids attending anganwadis or schools, adolescents, and pregnant and lactating mothers. This must continue but new-Borns, infants, and toddlers need attention too. Monitoring weight is an indicator, not a solution.
- States must be encouraged: States should be urged to examine the NFHS findings to steer a new course to improve the poshan practices for the youngest and the most vulnerable sections of society.
- Better child rearing practices: Helping mothers to better the lives of their infants and toddlers right inside the home by measuring and demonstrating how much diet, food intake and child-rearing practices matter.
Conclusion
- We should lose no more time over the GHI rankings, which are distorted and irrelevant. India has successfully overcome much bigger problems reduced maternal and child mortality, improved access to sanitation, clean drinking water and clean cooking fuel. Our focus should be on nutrition rather than hunger.
Mains Question
Critically analyze the India’s hunger problem in light of Global Hunger Index. What are initiatives of Government of India to overcome hunger and nutrition challenge?
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
Reality Check on India’s Hunger Index Rank
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index
Mains level: Global Hunger Index, Indias Stance,issues with the index.
Context
- For the second time in two years, the Ministry of Women and Child Development rejected the Global Hunger Index (GHI) that ranked India 107 among 121 countries. India was accorded a score of 29.1 out of 100 (with 0 representing no hunger), placing it behind Sri Lanka (66), Myanmar (71), Nepal (81) and Bangladesh (84). It referred to the index as “an erroneous measure of hunger”.
All you need to know about Global Hunger Index
- Annual report: The GHI is a peer reviewed annual report that endeavours to “comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels”. Authors of the report primarily refer to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2(SDG 2) that endeavours to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030.
- Four Indicators: According to them, the report attempts to “raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger”. The GHI score is computed using four broad indicators under nourishment (measure of the proportion of the population facing chronic deficiency of dietary energy intake), child stunting (low height for age), child wasting (low weight for height) and child mortality (death of a child under the age of five).
Why these four Indicators are considered?
- To acknowledge undernourishment: As per the authors, it provides a basis to measure inadequate access to food and is among the lead indicators for international hunger targets, including the UN SDG 2. Child stunting and mortality, offers perspective about the child’s vulnerability to nutritional deficiencies, access to food and quality of nutrition.
- To address urgent requirement of nutrition: Since children (especially below five) are at a developmental age there is a greater and urgent requirement for nutrition with results particularly visible. This forms the basis of assessing nutritional requirement among children. Adults are at a sustainable age they are not growing but rather subsisting on nutrition for healthy survival. And lastly, on the same rationale, child mortality indicates the serious consequences of hunger.
- Uses data provided by Government: It explains that while FAO uses a suite of indicators on food security, including two important indicators — prevalence of undernourishment and prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity. The GHI only uses the data obtained through food balance sheets based on data reported by member countries, including India.
- Shows a picture of food supply chain: A food balance sheet provides a comprehensive picture of the pattern of a country’s food supply during a specified reference period. It lists down the source of the supply and its utilisation specific to each food category.
- Takes into account three child specific indicators: On why the GHI uses three child specific indicators out of the four to calculate hunger for a country’s population, the website explains, By combining the proportion of undernourished in the population(1/3 of the GHI score) with the indicators relating to children under age five (2/3of the GHI score), the GHI ensures that both the food supply situation of the population as a whole and the effects of inadequate nutrition within a vulnerable subset of the population are captured.
- International recognition: A Senior Policy Officer at the GHI said that, “All four indicators used in the calculation of the global hunger are recognised by the international community, including India, and used for measuring progress towards the UN SDGs.”
What are the Objections of Government of India?
- Very small sample size of the Index: As per the Ministry for Women and Child Development, the report lowers India’s rank based on the estimates of the Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population. It elaborates that the U.S. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate is based on the ‘Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)’ survey module conducted using the Gallup World Poll that bears a sample size of 3,000 respondents being asked eight questions. It stated that the data represented a miniscule proportion for account of India’s size.
- Counter assertion by India’s dietary supply is increasing: It countered the assertions in the report pointing to India’s per capita dietary energy supply increasing year on year due to enhanced production of major agricultural commodities in the country over the years.
- Index doesn’t reflect the actual ground reality: According to the Ministry, the report is not only disconnected from ground reality but also chooses to ignore the food security efforts of the Central government especially during the pandemic.
- Efficient PMGKAY: The Union Cabinet through the Pradhan Mantri Garib KalyanAnn Yojana (PMGKAY) provisioned an additional 5 kg ration per person each month in addition to their normal quota of food grains.
What are the Government efforts to address the hunger issue so far?
- The Midday Meal Scheme: The Midday meal is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.
- The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madrasa supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.
- Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
- PM-POSHAN: The name of the scheme has been changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by MoE (Ministry of Education), which is nodal ministry for the scheme.
- The Central Government also announced that an additional 24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government & government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.
Conclusion
- No country becomes great by dwarfing its people. India has certainly improved its poverty and hunger problems but there is still lot of ground yet to cover. Global hunger index may have exaggerated the India’s hunger issue but hunger problem in India is real if not substantial.
Mains Question
Q.Explain the methodology used by global hunger index report and India’s objection to it. What are the initiatives of government to reduce the hunger problem in India?
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
Free Breakfast Scheme,Healthy Children: Healthy Nation
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various Schemes
Mains level: Malnutrition, under-nutrition and micro-nutrition.
Context
- Under the free breakfast scheme of Tamil Nadu Government, children in government schools from Class I to Class V will get nutritious breakfast provided in their schools every morning. The scheme is aimed at encouraging more children to continue to come to school and help prevent dropouts in primary level.
CM’s Breakfast Scheme
- The scheme covers around 1.14 lakh students in 1,545 schools which include 417 municipal corporation schools, 163 municipality schools and 728 taluk and village panchayat-level schools.
- The inauguration of the scheme marks an important milestone in the State’s history of providing free meals to school students.
What is the approach for breakfast scheme?
- Morning Breakfast: Under the morning breakfast scheme, every student is to be provided a cooked meal of 150-500 grams breakfast with sambar with vegetables. With a budget outlay of Rs33.5 crore in the initial phase, the new scheme caters to 1,14,095 primary school students from1,545 government schools.
- Micronutrients deficiency: School administration will serve hot breakfasts to schoolchildren by 8:30 am before their classes begin. Students will be served upma, kichadi or Pongal from Monday to Friday, while rava kesari or semiya kesari will be added to the menu on Fridays.The local millets available in the area will also be part of the menu for at least two days a week.
- Aim of the scheme: The scheme mainly aims to help students attend school hunger free and improve their nutritional status.
What do the Critics of the scheme argue?
- Freebies: The scheme stands at the confluence of three socio-political developments: a fierce but murky political debate on freebies.
- Mid-day meal scheme: There was no need to supplement the existing mid-day meal scheme. But going by the content of the scheme, it seems unlikely that it will bring any substantial or sustained improvements in the above mentioned aspects of nutrition, especially since T.N. is already doing well in this regard.
- Populism: This is just a populist scheme by state government for vote bank politics.
- Questionable outcomes: Though the scheme has the potential to ensure that children attend classes hunger free, reliable and representative data on what proportion of them attend school without having breakfast regularly is scarce. Though the State acknowledges that students tend to skip breakfast because of the school timing and their financial situation, it is important to identify which among these is the significant contributor. The present approach does not distinguish between the two.
What the Defenders of the scheme argue?
- Positive outcomes: Studies from other countries suggest that free breakfast schemes might help increase educational outcomes through a likely increase in school attendance and improved concentration on studies.
- On freebies: The freebie debate strategically deploys fiscal burden as a potent tool to possibly constrain States from discharging this responsibility.
Why feeding children in school is important?
- Welfare state: The States have a responsibility to promote welfare and minimise inequalities in income as well as in facilities and opportunities among individuals and groups (Article38).
- Global Food Security Index: The welfare responsibility of the States remains undiminished, especially since India is ranked 71out of 113 countries on the Global Food Security Index.
- Global Hunger Index: India ranked 101 out of 116countries on the Global Hunger Index.
- Human development index: 132 out of 191 countries on the Human Development Index. India’s mean years of schooling stood at just 6.7 years in 2020-21.
- Inequality: Additionally, India has among the highest levels of inequality in education. This responds closely with the rising wealth inequality, as brought out by the recent Credit Suisse report.
- Stunting and wasting: Malnourishment in children (stunting, wasting and underweight) under 5 years has reduced as per National family health survey-5 (2019-21) from 38.4% to 35.5%, 21.0% to 19.3% and 35.8% to 32.1% respectively as compared to NHFS-4 (2015-16). However present scenario is not good as compare to other developing nations in south Asia.
What are the different Existing Scheme?
- The Midday Meal Scheme: The Midday meal is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.
- The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madrasa supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.
- Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
- PM-POSHAN: The name of the scheme has been changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by MoE (Ministry of Education), which is nodal ministry for the scheme.
- The Central Government also announced that an additional 24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government & government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.
Conclusion
- India’s spending in human development enhancing welfare schemes has been very dismal. There is an urgent need for implementing innovative and effective welfare schemes to address the disruptions caused by the pandemic in the education and nutrition sectors and strengthen these sectors.
Mains Question
Q.Malnutrition, under-nutrition and micro-nutrition requires a different approach. Distinguish and suggest the existing policy gaps to address them.
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Hunger and Nutrition Issues – GHI, GNI, etc.
World Food Programme (WFP)
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: World Food Programme (WFP)
Mains level: NA
India signed an agreement with the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution of 50,000 tonnes of wheat that it has committed to sending Afghanistan as part of humanitarian assistance.
What is WFP?
- The WFP is the food-assistance branch of the United Nations (UN).
- It is the world’s largest humanitarian organization focused on hunger and food security, and the largest provider of school meals.
- Founded in 1961, it is headquartered in Rome and has offices in 80 countries.
- In addition to emergency food relief, WFP offers technical assistance and development aid, such as building capacity for emergency preparedness and response, managing supply chains and logistics, etc.
- The agency is also a major provider of direct cash assistance and medical supplies and provides passenger services for humanitarian workers.
Feats achieved
- As of 2020, it served 115.5 million people in 80-plus countries, the largest since 2012.
- The WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 for its efforts to provide food assistance in areas of conflict and to prevent the use of food as a weapon of war and conflict.
WFP in Afghanistan
- The wheat will be taken through Pakistan to the Afghan border crossing and handed over to WFP officials in Kandahar.
- The WFP runs its own logistics network inside Afghanistan, partnering with civil society groups.
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What the low rank on the Global Hunger Index means for India
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GHI and its components
Mains level: Paper 2- Low ranking of India on GHI
Context
This year’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India 101 out of 116 countries for which reliable and comparable data exist.
Government’s stand
- Is India’s performance on hunger as dismal as denoted by the index or is it partly a statistical artefact?
- This question assumes immediacy, especially since the government has questioned the methodology and claimed that the ranking does not represent the ground reality.
- This calls for careful scrutiny of the methodology, especially of the GHI’s components.
Understanding the GHI methodology
- The GHI has four components.
- The first — insufficient calorie intake — is applicable for all age groups.
- The data on deficiency in calorie intake, accorded 33% weight, is sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Suite of Food Security Indicators (2021).
- The remaining three — wasting (low weight for height), stunting (low height for age) and mortality — are confined to children under five years.
- The data on child wasting and stunting (2016-2020), each accounting for 16.6% of weight, are from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank, complemented with the latest data from the Demographic and Health Surveys.
- Under-five mortality data are for 2019 from the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.
Issues with GHI
- The GHI is largely children-oriented with a higher emphasis on undernutrition than on hunger and its hidden forms, including micronutrient deficiencies.
- The first component — calorie insufficiency — is problematic for many reasons.
- The lower calorie intake, which does not necessarily mean deficiency, may also stem from reduced physical activity, better social infrastructure (road, transport and healthcare) and access to energy-saving appliances at home, among others.
- For a vast and diverse country like India, using a uniform calorie norm to arrive at deficiency prevalence means failing to recognise the huge regional imbalances in factors that may lead to differentiated calorie requirements at the State level.
Understanding the connection between stunting and wasting and ways to tackling them
- India’s wasting prevalence (17.3%) is one among the highest in the world.
- Its performance in stunting, when compared to wasting, is not that dismal, though.
- Child stunting in India declined from 54.2% in 1998–2002 to 34.7% in 2016-2020, whereas child wasting remains around 17% throughout the two decades of the 21st century.
- Stunting is a chronic, long-term measure of undernutrition, while wasting is an acute, short-term measure.
- Quite possibly, several episodes of wasting without much time to recoup can translate into stunting.
- Effectively countering episodes of wasting resulting from such sporadic adversities is key to making sustained and quick progress in child nutrition.
- Way forward: If India can tackle wasting by effectively monitoring regions that are more vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental crises, it can possibly improve wasting and stunting simultaneously.
Low child mortality
- India’s relatively better performance in the other component of GHI — child mortality — merits a mention.
- Studies suggest that child undernutrition and mortality are usually closely related, as child undernutrition plays an important facilitating role in child mortality.
- However, India appears to be an exception in this regard.
- This implies that though India was not able to ensure better nutritional security for all children under five years, it was able to save many lives due to the availability of and access to better health facilities.
Conclusion
The low ranking does not mean that India fares uniformly poor in every aspect. This ranking should prompt us to look at our policy focus and interventions and ensure that they can effectively address the concerns raised by the GHI, especially against pandemic-induced nutrition insecurity.
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India ranked 101 in Global Hunger Index (GHI)
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Hunger Index
Mains level: Food and nutrition security of India
The Global Hunger Index 2021 has ranked India at 101 positions out of a total 116 countries.
Note the parameters over which the GHI is based and their weightage composition.
Global Hunger Index (GHI)
- The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
- It determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
- It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
- The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.
For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:
- Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
- Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
- Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
- Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five
India’s (poor) performance
- India is among the 31 countries where hunger has been identified as serious.
- Only 15 countries fare worse than India.
- Some of these include Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111) and Somalia (116).
- India was also behind most of the neighbouring countries.
- Pakistan was placed at 92 rank, Nepal at 76 and Bangladesh also at 76.
Reasons for such poor performance
- Poor maternal health: Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and too undernourished themselves, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
- Poor sanitation: Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause of child wasting and stunting.
- Food insecurity: Low dietary diversity in India is also a key factor in child malnutrition.
- Poverty: Almost 50 million households in India are dependent on these small and marginal holdings.
- Livelihood loss: The rural livelihoods loss after COVID and lack of income opportunities other than the farm sector have contributed heavily to the growing joblessness in rural areas.
Issues over credibility of GHI
- India has ranked among many African countries while it is among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.
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Agri-food systems need a transformative change
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FAO
Mains level: Paper 3- Reorienting agri-food systems
Context
There is an urgent need for reorientation of the long-term direction of agri-food systems to not only enhance farm incomes but also ensure better access to safe and nutritious foods.
Challenge of malnutrition in India
- The findings from the first round of the Fifth National Family Health Survey suggest that nutrition-related indicators have worsened in most States.
- In addition, findings from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (2016-18) have highlighted the role of micro-nutrient malnutrition.
- Pathways for nutritional security consist of improving dietary diversity, kitchen gardens, reducing post-harvest losses, making safety net programmes more nutrition-sensitive, women’s empowerment, enforcement of standards and regulations, improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, nutrition education, and effective use of digital technology.
Agri-food system: Significance and challenges it faces
- The agri-food systems are the most important part of the Indian economy.
- India produces sufficient food, feed and fibre to sustain about 18% of the world’s population (as of 2020). Agriculture contributes about 16.5% to India’s GDP and employs 42.3% of the workforce (2019-20).
- A sustainable agri-food system is one in which a variety of sufficient, nutritious and safe foods are made available at an affordable price to everyone, and nobody goes hungry or suffers from any form of malnutrition.
- However, the country’s agri-food systems are facing new and unprecedented challenges, especially related to economic and ecological sustainability, nutrition and the adoption of new agricultural technologies.
- The edifice of India’s biosecurity remains vulnerable to disasters and extreme events.
Way forward: Reorienting agri-food systems
- There is an urgent need for reorientation of the long-term direction of agri-food systems to not only enhance farm incomes but also ensure better access to safe and nutritious foods.
- Additionally, the agri-food systems need to be reoriented to minimise cost on the environment and the climate.
- This need is recognised by the theme of World Food Day 2021: ‘Our actions are our future. Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life’.
- FAO’s support for the transformation of agri-food systems is rooted in agro-ecology.
- The more diverse an agricultural system, the greater its ability to adapt to shocks.
- Different combinations of integrated crop-livestock-forestry-fishery systems can help farmers produce a variety of products in the same area, at the same time or in rotation.
- In January this year, FAO in collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Agriculture convened a National Dialogue to evolve a framework for the transition to a more sustainable agri-food systems by 2030 and identify pathways for enhancing farmers’ income and achieving nutritional security.
Consider the question “What are the challenges facing agri-food systems in India? Suggest the pathways to transform the agri-food system to enhance farm income and ensure food and nutrition security.”
Conclusion
Food systems can help combat environmental degradation or climate change. Sustainable agri-food systems can deliver food security and nutrition for all, without compromising the economic, social and environmental bases.
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Reimagining food systems with lessons from India
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UNFSS 2021
Mains level: Paper 3- Reimagining food system
Context
The first and historic United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) 2021 was held in September this year.
Significance of food system transformation
- Global food systems are the networks that are needed to produce and transform food, and ensure it reaches consumers, or the paths that food travels from production to plate.
- Global food systems are in a state of crisis in many countries affecting the poor and the vulnerable.
- In terms of larger goals, the food system transformation is considered essential in achieving the sustainable development agenda 2030.
- This makes strong sense as 11 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) out of 17 are directly related to the food system.
Achievements of the Food Systems Summit
- The summit created a mechanism for serious debates involving UN member states, civil society, non-governmental organisations, academics, researchers, individuals, and the private sector.
- The debate and response focused on five identified action tracks namely: Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all; Shift to sustainable consumption patterns; Boost nature-positive production; Advance equitable livelihoods, and Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress.
- The Statement of Action emerging from the summit offers a concise set of ambitious, high-level principles and areas for action to support the global call to “Build back better” after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lessons from India’s experience with food systems
- India’s long journey from food shortage to surplus food producer offers several lessons for other developing countries.
- The learnings encompassed elements of nutritional health, food safety and standards, sustainability, deployment of space technology, and the like.
- Safety nets: One of India’s greatest contributions to equity in food is its National Food Security Act 2013 that anchors the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Mid-Day meals (MDM), and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
- Today, India’s food safety nets collectively reach over a billion people.
- Food safety nets and inclusion are linked with public procurement and buffer stock policy.
- Challenge of climate change: Climate change and unsustainable use of land and water resources are the most formidable challenges food systems face today.
- The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has set the alarm bells ringing, highlighting the urgency to act now.
- Nutrition and food diversity: Dietary diversity, nutrition, and related health outcomes are another area of concern as a focus on rice and wheat has created nutritional challenges of its own.
- India has taken a bold decision to fortify rice supplied through the Public Distribution System with iron.
- Low nutrition: Despite being a net exporter and food surplus country at the aggregate level, India has a 50% higher prevalence of undernutrition compared to the world average.
- But the proportion of the undernourished population declined from 21.6% during 2004-06 to 15.4% during 2018-20.
- Food wastage: Reducing food wastage or loss of food is a mammoth challenge and is linked to the efficiency of the food supply chain. Food wastage in India exceeds ₹1-lakh crore.
Need to eliminate hunger
- ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’ report, estimates that around a tenth of the global population was undernourished last year.
- Hunger and food insecurity are key drivers of conflict and instability across the world.
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 conferred on the United Nations WFP highlighted the importance of addressing hunger to prevent conflicts and create stability.
Way forward
- Collaboration: We must collaborate to invest, innovate, and create lasting solutions in sustainable agriculture contribution to equitable livelihood, food security, and nutrition.
- Lessons from India: India has so much to offer from its successes, and learning also, to prepare itself for the next 20 to 30 years.
- There is a need to reimagining the food system towards the goal of balancing growth and sustainability, mitigating climate change, ensuring healthy, safe, quality, and affordable food, maintaining biodiversity, improving resilience, and offering an attractive income and work environment to smallholders and youth.
Conclusion
We are on the cusp of a transformation to make the world free of hunger by 2030 and deliver promises for SDGs, with strong cooperation and partnership between governments, citizens, civil society organisations, and the private sector.
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The nutrition-hygiene link
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Environmental enteropathy
Mains level: Paper 2- Addressing the nutrition problem through WASH
Context
A recent UNICEF report stated that nearly 12 lakh children could die in low-income countries in the next six months due to a decrease in routine health services and an increase in wasting. Nearly three lakh such children would be from India.
Problem of nutrition in India and factors responsible for it
- The National Family Health Survey (NFHS 5) indicates that since the onset of the pandemic, acute undernourishment in children below the age of five has worsened.
- According to the latest data, 37.9 per cent of children under five are stunted, and 20.8 per cent are wasted — a form of malnutrition in which children are too thin for their height.
- Comparison with other countries: This is much higher than in other developing countries where, on average, 25 per cent of children suffer from stunting and 8.9 per cent are wasted.
- Factors: Inadequate dietary intake is the most direct cause of undernutrition.
- Several other factors also affect nutritional outcomes, such as contaminated drinking water, poor sanitation, and unhygienic living conditions.
- According to the World Health Organisation, 50 per cent of all mal- and under-nutrition can be traced to diarrhoea and intestinal worm infections.
- Nutrition and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are intricately linked, and changes in one tend, directly or indirectly, to affect the other.
- Poor hygiene and sanitation in developing countries lead to a sub-clinical condition called “environmental enteropathy” in children.
- Environmental enteropathy is a disorder of the intestine which prevents the proper absorption of nutrients, rendering them effectively useless.
- Childhood diarrhoea is a major public health problem in low- and middle-income countries, leading to high mortality in children under five.
- According to NFHS 4, approximately 9 percent of children under five years of age in India experience diarrhoeal disease.
Way forward
- Investment in WASH: The link between WASH and nutrition suggests that greater attention to, and investments in, WASH are a sure-shot way of bolstering the country’s nutritional status.
- Addressing nutrition sanitation problems together: Both WASH and nutrition must be addressed together through a lens of holistic, sustainable community engagement to enable long-term impact.
- One of the first instances of the link between WASH and nutrition appeared in the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, which urges states to ensure “adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water” to combat disease and malnutrition.
- Safe drinking water, proper sanitation, and hygiene can significantly reduce diarrhoeal and nutritional deaths.
- Multistructural approach: What we require is a coordinated, multisectoral approach among the health, water, sanitation, and hygiene bodies, not to mention strong community engagement.
- WHO has estimated that access to proper water, hygiene, and sanitation can prevent the deaths of at least 8,60,000 children a year caused by undernutrition.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, all sides are working towards a common goal: A safe and healthy population and the hope that the 75th year of Independence becomes a watershed moment in India’s journey.
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Biofortified food can lead India from food security to nutrition security
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Food fortification
Mains level: Paper 3- Nutrition security through food fortification
Context
On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that, by 2024, rice provided to the poor under any government scheme — PDS, mid-day-meal, anganwadi — will be fortified.
Need for nutrition security in India
- 15.3 per cent of the country’s population is undernourished.
- India has the highest proportion of “stunted” (30 per cent) and “wasted” children (17.3 per cent) below five years of age, as per the FAO’s recent publication, ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2021’.
- These figures indicate that India is at a critical juncture with respect to nutritional security.
- Other factors: Other factors like poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation, low levels of immunization and education, especially of women, contribute equally to this dismal situation.
India’s journey towards nutrition security
- As per the ICAR website, they had developed 21 varieties of biofortified staples including wheat, rice, maize, millets, mustard, groundnut by 2019-20.
- These varieties are not genetically modified.
- These biofortified crops have 1.5 to 3 times higher levels of protein, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids compared to the traditional varieties.
- A research team at the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute in Mohali has also developed biofortified colored wheat (black, blue, purple) that is rich in zinc and anthocyanins.
- The HarvestPlus program of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has been working closely with ICAR, to improve the access of the poor in India to iron-rich pearl millet and zinc-rich wheat.
- Globally, more than 40 countries have released biofortified crops, benefitting over 48 million people.
- Leveraging science to attack the complex challenge of malnutrition, particularly for low-income and vulnerable sections of society, can be a good intervention.
Challenges in securing nutrition security
- Access to nutritious food is only one of the determinants of nutrition.
- Other factors like poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation, low levels of immunization and education, especially of women, contribute equally to this dismal situation.
- Need for a multi-pronged approach: In the long run, India needs a multi-pronged approach to eliminate the root cause of this complex problem.
Way forward: Multi-pronged approach
1) Focus on mother’s education
- There is a direct correlation between a mother’s education and the well-being of children.
- Targeted programs for improving the educational status of girls and reducing school dropout rates need to be promoted.
- The Global Nutrition Report (2014) estimates that every dollar invested in a proven nutrition program offers benefits worth 16 dollars.
2) Scale-up innovation in biofortified food by supporting policies
- Innovations in biofortified food can alleviate malnutrition only when they are scaled up with supporting policies.
- This would require increasing expenditure on agri-R&D and incentivizing farmers by linking their produce to lucrative markets through sustainable value chains and distribution channels.
- The government can also rope in the private sector to create a market segment for premium-quality biofortified foods.
- For instance, trusts run by the TATA group are supporting different states to initiate fortification of milk with Vitamin A and D.
3) National awareness drive
- A national awareness drive on the lines of the “Salt Iodisation Programme” launched by the government in 1962 can play an important role at the individual and community levels to achieve the desired goals of poshan for all.
- Branding, awareness campaigns, social and behavioral change initiatives, can promote the consumption of locally available, nutrient-dense affordable foods among the poor and children.
Consider the question” Access to nutritious food is only one of the determinants of nutrition, and fortified food can play important role in this direction. Suggest the other measures to ensure nutrition safety in India.”
Conclusion
Biofortified food is a step in the right direction, however, other factors should also be given equal attention in securing national security in India.
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Centre to give 5 kg foodgrains free to poor
The Central Government announced that 5kg of free wheat or rice per monthwill be provided to around 80 crore people for the next two months, May and June.
Major Highlights:
- This will be extended to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act(NFSA).
- Nearly 8 million tonnes of food grains will be distributed under this scheme.
- The scheme is expected to bring relief to NFSA beneficiaries as it will be in addition to the regular entitlement of 5kg highly subsidised foodgrains to each beneficiary at Rs 3, 2 and 1 per kg of rice, wheat and coarse grains.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY):
- Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is a food security welfare schemeannounced by the Government of India in March 2020.
- PM-GKAY is a part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat to supply free food grains to migrants and poor.
- The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distributionunder the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
Aim:
- To feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System to all the priority households (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).
- PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person/month and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.
Eligibility/ Beneficiaries:
- Families belonging to the Below Poverty Line – Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories will be eligible for the scheme.
- PHH are to be identified by State Governments/Union Territory Administrations as per criteria evolved by them.
- AAY families are to be identified by States/UTs as per the criteria prescribed by the Central Government:
- Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
- Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
- All primitive tribal households.
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- Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitute and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
- All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV positive persons.
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Agri Ministry questions Global Hunger reports’ methodology
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GHI
Mains level: Poverty and Hunger
Union Minister of State for Agriculture has questioned the methodology and data accuracy of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, which has placed India at 94th (out of 107 countries) rank in 2020.
About GHI
- GHI is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide, an Ireland-based humanitarian group, and Welthungerhilfe, a Germany-based NGO.
- It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
- It says the aim of publishing the report is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.
- According to the GHI website, the data for the indicators come from the United Nations and other multilateral agencies, including the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.
Various indicators used
- UNDERNOURISHMENT: the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient);
- CHILD WASTING: the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition);
- CHILD STUNTING: the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition); and
- CHILD MORTALITY: the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments).
What is the concern?
- India was ranked below countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar when it was among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.
Actual scenario
- The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) compiled in 2017-18 showed an improvement of 4%, 3.7% and 2.3% in wasted, stunted and malnourished children respectively.
- The first-ever CNNS was commissioned by the government in 2016 and was conducted from 2016-18, led by the Union Health Ministry, in collaboration with the UNICEF.
- The findings were published in 2019. CNNS includes only nutrition data, whereas NFHS encompasses overall health indicators.
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Food Waste Index Report 2021
The Food Waste Index Report 2021 was recently released by the UNEP.
Even though the world produces enough food to feed twice the world’s present population, food wastage is ironically behind the billions of people who are starving.
Food Waste Index
- The Food Waste Index is released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partner organisation WRAP.
- It measures tons of wasted food per capita, considering a mixed stream of products from processing through to consumption.
- It was prepared by using data from 54 countries and then extrapolated to the remaining countries.
- Contrary to belief, the study by the UNEP revealed that food waste was a global problem and not that of just the developed world.
Highlights of the 2021 report
- The report has revealed that 17 per cent of all food available at consumer levels was wasted in 2019.
- That year, some 690 million people had to go hungry.
- The food waste amounted to a whopping 931 million tonnes of food sold to households, retailers and restaurants.
- Waste at household, foodservice and retail amounted to 79, 26 and 13 kilogram /capita / year respectively.
- The data, though scarce, revealed that food waste was substantial, regardless of income level.
Data on India
- The report notes that food waste at the consumer level happens in almost every country, regardless of income level.
- In South Asia, while 50 kilograms of food is wasted per person each year at the household level in India.
- Others include- 65 kilograms of this happening in Bangladesh, 74 kilograms in Pakistan, 76 kilograms in Sri Lanka, 79 kilograms in Nepal and 82 kilograms in Afghanistan.
Why it is important to prevent food wastage?
- Food waste also has a substantial environmental, social and economic impact.
- Food loss and waste cause about $940 billion per year in economic losses. Reductions can save money for farmers, companies, and households.
- For example, 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed.
- Reducing food waste would cut greenhouse gas emissions, slow the destruction of nature through land conversion and pollution, enhance the availability of food and thus reduce hunger and save money.
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World Food Price Index
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FAO Food Price Index
Mains level: Poverty and Hunger
World food prices rose for a seventh consecutive month in December 2020, with all the major categories, barring sugar, said the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO).
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following is not a sub-index of the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’? (CSP 2019)
(a) Maintenance of law and order
(b) Paying taxes
(c) Registering property
(d) Dealing with construction permits
World Food Price Index
- The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities.
- It consists of the average of five commodity group price indices [cereal, vegetable, dairy, meat and sugar], weighted with the average export shares.
- The index has become a critical and timely monthly indicator of the state of international food markets, gauging the change in food commodity prices over time in nominal and real terms.
Why it matters?
- High food prices have contributed to a surge in inflation
- There are social and economic advantages from high food prices for example higher prices are an opportunity to improve farmers’ incomes and to stimulate investments in farming.
- For developing countries that are major exporters of food, the rise in world prices helped to bring about an improvement in the terms of trade and a strong balance of payments.
Concerns raised
- That said higher food prices for domestic consumers created fresh problems of poverty and hunger.
- Lower-income families spend a higher proportion of their budgets on food.
- Higher prices hit them hardest causing a fall in real living standards.
- This means that food price inflation can act as a tax on the poor and have a regressive effect on the distribution of income.
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Stepping out of the shadow of India’s malnutrition
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Food Security Act 2013
Mains level: Paper 3- Food Security
The article takes stock of the food insecurity and malnutrition in India with the aid of two recently published reports.
Reports about food security in India
- Two recent reports — “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020” by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the 2020 Hunger report, “Better Nutrition, Better Tomorrow” by the Bread for the World Institute – document staggering facts about Indian food insecurity and malnutrition.
- The reports use two globally recognised indicators, Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) and the Prevalence of Moderate or Severe Food Insecurity (PMSFI).
- Using these indicators, the reports indicate India to be one of the most food-insecure countries, with the highest rates of stunting and wasting among other South Asian countries.
Comparing rate of reduction in malnutrition with neighbouring countries
- Malnutrition in India has not declined as much as the decline has occurred in terms of poverty.
- On the contrary, the reduction is found to be much lower than in neighbouring China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
- The decline in China is way higher than that of India, even though it had started with lower levels of PoU in 2000.
Food security during pandemic and National Food Security Act 2013
- Two crucial elements still got left out in the National Food Security Act – 2013.
- These two elements are the non-inclusion of nutritious food items such as pulses and exclusion of potential beneficiaries.
- Because of this, the current COVID-19 pandemic would make the situation worse in general, more so for vulnerable groups.
- Though States have temporarily expanded their coverage in the wake of the crisis, the problem of malnutrition is likely to deepen in the coming years.
- Hence, a major shift in policy has to encompass the immediate universalisation of the Public Distribution System which should definitely not be temporary in nature.
Conclusion
The need of the hour remains the right utilisation and expansion of existing programmes to ensure that we arrest at least some part of this burgeoning malnutrition in the country.
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Distribution of Fortified Rice under ICDS
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fortified rice, Biofortification, ICDS
Mains level: Various facets of hunger and malnutrition in India
In a bid to combat chronic anaemia and undernutrition, the government is planning to distribute fortified rice through the Integrated Child Development Services and Mid-Day Meal schemes across the country.
What is Fortified Rice?
- Rice can be fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to the rice that adheres to the grains or spraying of the surface of ordinary rice grains with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.
- Rice can also be extruded and shaped into partially precooked grain-like structures resembling rice grains, which can then be blended with natural polished rice.
- Rice kernels can be fortified with several micronutrients, such as iron, folic acid and other B-complex vitamins, vitamin A and zinc.
- These fortified kernels are then mixed with normal rice in a 1:100 ratio, and distributed for consumption.
Note: Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology. It differs from conventional fortification in that Biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during the processing of the crops.
What was the earlier initiative?
- The centrally-sponsored pilot scheme was approved in February 2019 for a three-year period from 2019-20 onwards.
- However, only five States — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh — have started the distribution of fortified rice in their identified pilot districts.
Need for expansion
- Currently, there are only 15,000 tonnes of these kernels available per year in the country.
- To cover PDS, anganwadis and mid-day meals in the 112 aspirational districts, annual supply capacity would need to be increased to about 1.3 lakh tonnes.
- To cover PDS across the country, 3.5 lakh tonnes of fortified kernels would be needed.
Regulating fortification
- FSSAI has formulated a comprehensive regulation on fortification of foods namely ‘Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016’.
- These regulations set the standards for food fortification and encourage the production, manufacture, distribution, sale and consumption of fortified foods.
- The regulations also provide for the specific role of FSSAI in promotion for food fortification and to make fortification mandatory.
- WHO recommends fortification of rice with iron, vitamin A and folic acid as a public health strategy to improve the iron status of population wherever rice is a staple food.
Back2Basics: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)
- The ICDS aims to provide food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.
- The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
- The tenth FYP also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.
- The ICDS provide for anganwadis or day-care centres which deliver a package of six services including:
- Immunization
- Supplementary nutrition
- Health checkup
- Referral services
- Pre-school education (Non-Formal)
- Nutrition and Health information
Implementation
- For nutritional purposes, ICDS provides 500 kilocalories (with 12-15 grams of protein) every day to every child below 6 years of age.
- For adolescent girls, it is up to 500-kilo calories with up to 25 grams of protein every day.
- The services of Immunisation, Health Check-up and Referral Services delivered through Public Health Infrastructure under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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Highlights of the Global Hunger Report, 2020
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: GHI
Mains level: Various facets of hunger and malnutrition in India
India has the highest prevalence of wasted children under five years in the world, which reflects acute undernutrition, according to the Global Hunger Index 2020.
Note the parameters over which the GHI is based and their weightage composition.
Global Hunger Index (GHI)
- The GHI has been brought out almost every year by Welthungerhilfe lately in partnerships with Concern Worldwide since 2000; this year’s report is the 14th one.
- The reason for mapping hunger is to ensure that the world achieves “Zero Hunger by 2030” — one of the SDGs laid out by the UN.
- A low score gets a country a higher ranking and implies better performance.
- It is for this reason that GHI scores are not calculated for certain high-income countries.
- Each country’s data are standardised on a 100-point scale and a final score is calculated after giving 33.33% weight each to components 1 and 4, and giving 16.66% weight each to components 2 and 3.
For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:
- Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
- Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
- Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
- Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five.
India’s performance this year
- In the 2020 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 94th out of the 107 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2020 GHI scores.
- With a score of 27.2, India has a level of hunger that is serious.
- The situation has worsened in the 2015-19 period, when the prevalence of child wasting was 17.3%, in comparison to 2010-14, when it was 15.1%.
- India fares worst in child wasting (low weight for height, reflecting acute undernutrition) and child stunting (low height for age, reflecting chronic undernutrition), which together make up a third of the total score.
Useful comparative data
- Overall, India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in the Index, lower than neighbours such as Bangladesh (75) and Pakistan (88).
- In the region of the south, east and south-eastern Asia, the only countries which fare worse than India are Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and North Korea.
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[pib] Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FAO
Mains level: India and FAO
On the occasion of 75th Anniversary of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 16th October 2020, PM has released a commemorative coin of Rs 75.
Try this MCQ:
Q.The FAO accords the status of ‘Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)’ to traditional agricultural systems. What is the overall goal of this initiative?
- To provide modern technology, training in modern farming methods and financial support to local communities of identified GIAHS so as to greatly enhance their agricultural productivity.
- To identify and safeguard eco-friendly traditional farm practices and their associated landscapes, agricultural biodiversity and knowledge systems of the local communities.
- To provide Geographical Indication status to all the varieties of agricultural produce in such identified GIAHS Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
About FAO
- It is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.
- It was founded in October 1945 and is headquartered in Rome.
- It maintains regional and field offices around the world, operating in over 130 countries.
- It also conducts research, provides technical assistance to projects, operates educational and training programs, and collects data on agricultural output, production, and development.
- Composed of 197 member states, the FAO is governed by a biennial conference representing each member country and the European Union, which elects a 49-member executive council.
- The Director-General serves as the chief administrative officer.
India and FAO
- India has had a historic association with FAO.
- Indian Civil Service Officer Dr Binay Ranjan Sen was the Director-General of FAO during 1956-1967.
- The World Food Programme, which has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2020, was established during his time.
- India’s proposals for the International Year of Pulses in 2016 and the International Year of Millets 2023 have also been endorsed by FAO.
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Global Nutrition Report, 2020
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Global Nutrition Report, 2020
Mains level: State of Mother-Child health in India
The Global Nutrition Report 2020 has stated that India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025.
UPSC may puzzle you by asking a prelim question like-
With reference to the Global Nutrition Report, which of the following is/are a Global Nutrition Targets?
Visit this link for more graphics related to India: https://globalnutritionreport.org/resources/nutrition-profiles/asia/southern-asia/india/
About the Global Nutrition Report
- The GNR is a report card on the world’s nutrition—globally, regionally, and country by country—and on efforts to improve it.
- It is an independently produced annual stock-take of the state of the world’s nutrition. It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, consisting of a Stakeholder Group, Independent Expert Group and Report Secretariat.
- It was conceived following the first Nutrition for Growth Initiative Summit (N4G) in 2013 and was first published in 2014.
- The report tracks global nutrition targets on maternal, infant and young child nutrition and on diet-related Non-Communicable Diseases adopted by member states of the WHO as well as governments’ delivery against their commitments.
India would miss the targets
- According to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available, i.e.
1) Stunting among under-5 children,
2) Anaemia among women of reproductive age,
3) Childhood overweight and
4) Exclusive breastfeeding
What are Global nutrition targets?
- In 2012, the World Health Assembly identified six nutrition targets for maternal, infant and young child nutrition to be met by 2025. They are:
1) Reducing stunting by 40% in children under 5 years age
2) Reducing anaemia by 50% among women in the age group of 19-49 years
3) Ensuring a 30% reduction in low-birth-weight
4) Ensuring no increase in childhood overweight,
5) Increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50% and
6) Reducing and maintaining childhood wasting to less than 5%.
Data on Underweight children
- Between 2000 and 2016, rates of underweight have decreased from 66.0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls.
- However, this is still high compared to the average of 35.6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia.
- In addition, 37.9% of children fewer than 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively.
- One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic, while at the same time the rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise, affecting almost a fifth of the adults, at 21.6% of women and 17.8% of men.
Data about India
-
Stunting and wasting among children
- Data: 37.9% of children under 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively.
- Inequity:
-
-
- India is identified as among the three worst countries, along with Nigeria and Indonesia, for steep within-country disparities in stunting, where the levels varied four-fold across communities.
- For example, Stunting level in Uttar Pradesh is over 40% and their rate among individuals in the lowest income group is more than double those in the highest income group at 22.0% and 50.7%, respectively.
- In addition, stunting prevalence is 10.1% higher in rural areas compared to urban areas.
-
- Overweight and Obesity
- Data: Rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise, affecting almost a fifth of the adults, at 21.6% of women and 17.8% of men.
- Inequity: There are nearly double as many obese adult females than there are males (5.1% compared to 2.7%).
- Anaemia
- One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic.
Inequities in Malnutrition
- The report emphasises on the link between malnutrition and different forms of inequity, such as those based on geographic location, age, gender, ethnicity, education and wealth malnutrition in all its forms.
- Inequity is a cause of malnutrition — both under-nutrition and overweight, obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases.
- Inequities in food and health systems exacerbate inequalities in nutrition outcomes that in turn can lead to more inequity, perpetuating a vicious cycle, says the report.
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Let no one go hungry
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much.
Mains level: Paper 2-How steps government must take to ensure that the stranded labour are not left without food.
Context
The impact of the lockdown, effected from midnight of March 24, has been particularly severe on migrant workers. The state must utilise FCI stock for those who have ration cards and those who don’t.
India’s labour force and impact of lockdown on it
- Nearly one-fifth of India’s labour force consists of internal migrants.
- As per the 2011 census, a quarter of the urban population consists of migrants.
- These tend to be predominantly male, from the less developed northern states, in the lower-income strata, and dependent on daily wages or precarious livelihoods.
- The impact of the lockdown has been particularly severe on migrant workers.
- Uncertainty and reverse migration: Due to uncertainty over the duration of the lockdown, and about their own livelihoods and food security, the lockdown has led to massive reverse migration from cities back to villages.
- Further, due to the absence of train and bus services, many of these workers took to simply walking back.
- The ground reality of inadequate preparation or insufficient provision means that neither their anxiety nor plight is assuaged.
- Migrant workers tend to depend on public eating places or community arrangements for food.
- Under a lockdown, there is simply no choice for them, except to depend on the government’s efforts or charitable organisations.
Utilising the grain stocks with the FCI
- The government has a large stock of wheat and rice procured over the last three years.
- Stock in excess of buffer norm: The buffer norm for April 1 is 21.4 million tonnes, against which the country had about 7 million tonnes on March 1: This comprises 27.5 million tonnes of wheat and 50.2 million tonnes of rice.
- In most districts of India, the Food Corporation of India and state agencies have a storage capacity of more than the three months requirement of the public distribution system.
- The warehouses are spread across all the districts in every state.
- The government has already announced that an additional quantity of five kg of foodgrains will be provided, free of cost, to all ration card holders for the next three months.
- Most of the unorganised labour and families migrating back from their place of work will probably have their ration cards in the villages itself.
- So, it should not be much of a problem for them to find food during the period of lockdown.
What should the state do to feed those who do not have ration cards
- For those who do not have ration cards in the villages, it is the right time to use this extra stock of foodgrains.
- Using school and Anganwadi infrastructure: In villages, primary schools have facilities for cooking mid-day meals for children. Some Anganwadi also have this facility. This infrastructure can be used to provide cooked meals to those who do not have ration cards in the villages.
- The government can easily offer to meet their requirement of wheat and rice over the next three weeks and panchayats can be asked to meet a part of the expenditure required to purchase vegetables, spices and cooking oil.
- The village panchayats which take up such a feeding programme must be provided Rs 20 per person per day from State Disaster Relief Fund for the expenditure on vegetables, cooking oil, spices, which are not covered by the PDS.
- In some villages, the local community may also be willing to help the panchayats to feed such people.
- Efforts must also be made by the panchayats to raise donations in kind from the local community for rabi pulses like chana (chickpea), masoor (lentil), matar (field pea) which are available in plenty in pulse-growing states.
How to feed those who are stuck in the cities
- A number of labourers and self-employed: In urban areas, as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey, there were about 6 crore casual labourers and four crore self-employed persons in 2017-18.
- Even after the reverse migration to villages, there would still be millions of them who are stuck in cities at their place of work.
- These are people who do not have any savings or source of income which can sustain them during the period of the lockdown. These people living in slums, in the poorer areas of cities, are in need of urgent assistance for food, at least for the next three weeks.
- The most distressed at present are those stuck in the cities, or who have been walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes in small towns and villages.
- Allocating funds form relief funds: The district collectors should be allocated funds from the State Disaster Relief Fund to provide them with food and open all community buildings en route for them.
- Engaging various players: The states must engage NGOs, factories and charities including religious organisations to raise funds for meeting the expenditure on milk, eggs, cooking oil and vegetables, and even soaps and sanitisers.
- More than 67,000 NGOs are registered with the Niti Aayog on their NGO Darpan platform — which was created to bring about a greater partnership between the government and the voluntary sector and to foster transparency, efficiency and accountability.
- This is the time to use such a platform.
- The Centre can easily provide free rice and wheat to the NGOs from its stock and the NGOs can provide cooked meals in urban areas for the next three weeks.
- For one crore individuals, for three weeks, the government needs to provide just about 75,000 tonnes of rice. Since the milling of wheat would be difficult due to the closure of flour mills, only rice can be provided at this stage.
Conclusion
The rabi harvest is expected to be a bumper one. The utilisation of the FCI stock — for not only the ration card holders but also the non-ration cardholders, and for providing food to the poor stuck in urban areas — is the most appropriate use of the foodgrain stock with the government. This is urgent and must be done.
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Nutrition and the Budget’s fine print
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh
Mains level: Paper 2- Despite having many schemes to address the malnutrition the problems still looms large, why?
Context
There are well-equipped schemes to address the malnutrition, plugging the policy gaps is the problem.
Nutrition and hunger in India
- Global Hunger Index rank 102: A few months ago, the Global Hunger Index, reported that India suffers from “serious” hunger, ranked 102 out of 117 countries.
- Only one-tenth of children getting proper diet: Just a tenth of children between six to 23 months are fed a minimum acceptable diet.
- Urgency reflected in the budget: The urgency around nutrition was reflected in the Union Finance Minister’s Budget speech, as she referred to the “unprecedented” scale of developments under the scheme for Holistic Nutrition, or POSHAN Abhiyaan, the National Nutrition Mission with efforts to track the status of 10 crore households.
- The Economic Survey notes that “Food is not just an end in itself but also an essential ingredient in the growth of human capital and therefore important for national wealth creation”.
- How malnutrition affects? Malnutrition affects cognitive ability, workforce days and health, impacting as much as 16% of GDP (World Food Programme and World Bank).
Addressing Nutrition through Agriculture
- Multiple dimension of malnutrition: There are multiple dimensions of malnutrition that include-
- Calorific deficiency.
- Protein hunger.
- Micronutrient deficiency.
- Addressing the issue through Agriculture: An important approach to address nutrition is through agriculture.
- The Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh which was launched in 2019 is a recent attempt to bridge this gap.
- The krishi kosh was launched by Ministry of Women and Child Development along with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
- Existing schemes can well address India’s malnutrition dilemma. Following is the analysis of budgetary allocation and expenditure in the previous year.
First- Calorific deficiency
- The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme provides a package of services including-
- Supplementary nutrition.
- Nutrition and health education.
- Health check-ups and
- Referral services addressing children, pregnant and lactating mothers and adolescent girls, key groups to address community malnutrition, and which also tackle calorific deficiency and beyond.
- Underutilisation of funds: For 2019-20, the allotment was ₹27,584.37 crore but revised estimates are ₹24,954.50 crore, which points to an underutilisation of resources.
- Which area needs the emphasis: The allocation this year is marginally higher, but clearly, the emphasis needs to be on implementation.
- Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Another pathway to address hunger is the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, to enhance the nutrition of schoolchildren.
- Here too, the issue is not with allocation but with expenditure.
- The 2019-20 Budget allocation was ₹11,000 crore and revised estimates are only ₹9,912 crores.
Second-Protein Hunger
- Contribution of pulses: Pulses are a major contributor to address protein hunger.
- Underutilisation of funds: A scheme for State and Union Territories aims to reach pulses into welfare schemes (Mid-Day Meal, Public Distribution System, ICDS) has revised estimates standing at just ₹370 crores against ₹800 crore allocation in the 2019-20 Budget.
Third-micronutrient deficiency
- Horticulture Mission: The Horticulture Mission can be one of the ways to address micronutrient deficiency effectively, but here too implementation is low.
- Revised estimates for 2019-20 stand at ₹1,583.50 crores against an allocation of ₹2,225 crores.
- National Millet Mission: In 2018-19, the Government of India launched a national millet mission which included renaming millets as “nutri-cereals” also launching a Year of Millets in 2018-19 to promote nutritious cereals in a campaign mode across the country.
- This could have been further emphasised in the Budget as well as in the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) which includes millets.
- Under-utilisation of funds: The NFSM strains to implement the allocation of ₹2,000 crores during 2019-20, as revised expenditures stand at ₹1,776.90 crore.
- Need to sustain the momentum: As millets have the potential to address micronutrient deficiencies, the momentum given to these cereals needs to be sustained.
POSHAN Abhiyan and issues involved
- 72% expenditure on technology: The National Nutrition Mission which is a major initiative to address malnutrition, had 72% of total expenditure going into “Information and Communication Technology.
- Misplaced focus: The focus of the bulk of the funding has been on technology, whereas, actually, it is a convergence that is crucial to address nutrition.
- Under-utilisation of funds: Only 34% of funds released by the Government of India were spent from FY 2017-18 to FY 2019-20 till November 30, 2019.
- Limiting the possibility of an increase in the allocation: With underspending, allocations for subsequent years will also be affected, limiting the possibility of increasing budgets and the focus on nutrition schemes.
Agriculture-nutrition link
- The agriculture-nutrition link is another piece of the puzzle.
- Link not explicitly mentioned: While agriculture dominated the initial Budget speech, the link between agriculture and nutrition was not explicit.
- Why the link is important: The link is important because about three-fifths of rural households are agricultural in India (National Sample Survey Office, 70th round)
- The malnutrition rates, particularly in rural areas are high (National Family Health Survey-4).
- Need for greater emphasis: Agriculture-nutrition linkage schemes have the potential for greater impact and need greater emphasis.
Way forward
- Focus: Focus on nutrition-related interventions, beyond digitisation.
- Bring all departments in one place: Intensify the convergence component of POSHAN Abhiyaan, using the platform to bring all departments in one place to address nutrition.
- Nutrition based activities by farmer-producer: Direct the announcement to form 10,000 farmer producer organisations with an allocation of ₹500 crores to nutrition-based activities.
- Youth schemes: Promotion of youth schemes to be directed to nutrition-agriculture link activities in rural areas.
- Emphasis on fund allocation: Give explicit emphasis and fund allocation to agriculture-nutrition linked schemes.
- Early disbursement and utilisation of funds: Ensure early disbursement of funds and optimum utilisation of schemes linked to nutrition.
Conclusion
Nutrition goes beyond just food, with economic, health, water sanitation, gender perspectives and social norms contributing to better nutrition. This is why the implementation of multiple schemes can contribute to better nutrition.
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