Ending hunger, food insecurity and any form of malnutrition is one of the Sustainable Development Goals set to be realised by 2030. Such a goal is far removed from its realisation given rising conflicts, climate vulnerability and extremes as well as economic slowdown in regions that remain vulnerable and food deficient.
Food insecurity and malnutrition are a manifestation of a lack of access to and the unaffordability of healthy diets. In fact, food sufficiency serves as a pre-requisite to address hunger. But for a nation to be food sufficient, it needs to have an ideal distributional mechanism that ensures universal access to food that is affordable. Further, adequate food does not necessarily imply balanced food intake with all required nutrients to address the concern of malnourishment. Hence, a transformation from a hunger-free environment to a nutritionally compliant one needs to take into account the unaffordability of healthy diets, unhealthy food intakes and their underlying inequalities across the population segment.
A lack of purchasing capacity
The global hunger assessment based on the prevalence of undernourishment shows a continuing lack of progress towards the goal of zero hunger. The global magnitude of the undernourished has risen to 9.4%, or 757 million people as of 2023. It is disproportionate in the African region with 20.4% facing hunger. In comparison, 8.1% in Asia, 6.2% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 7.3% in Oceania are undernourished. However, in real counts, Asia is home to the largest magnitude of those who are hungry — 384.5 million — as compared with 298.4 million in Africa.
The projected trends too are more disappointing in the sense that by the end of this decade, i.e., 2030, half of the world’s hungry/undernourished will be in Africa. The other distinct feature of undernourishment is its rural bias with a marginal advantage in urban and semi-urban areas. The gender divide in this adversity disadvantages women over men although such a divide is narrowing.
While food insecurity results in undernourishment or manifestation of hunger, the intrinsic connect lies with the lack of a purchasing capacity for adequate food. In this perspective, the cost and affordability of a healthy diet (CoHD) assumes significance. The cost of a healthy diet has risen in recent years world-wide, peaking at an average of 3.96 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day in 2022. This undoubtedly varies across world regions in PPP terms, with the same being at $4.20 in Asia.
Despite rising CoHD, those unable to afford a healthy diet at the global level decreased from 2.88 billion in 2021 to 2.83 billion in 2022. However, in low-income countries, many still lack access to a healthy diet. This is a real threat to the dream target of zero hunger in the world by 2030. A practical solution lies in regulating food prices and a reduced share of food expenditure in the total expenditure that makes healthy diets universally affordable. On this count the Indian scene is examined with a focus on thalinomics that contemplates rising affordability for a nutritionally compliant meal for every Indian.
A recent exploration shows that the share of the rural Indian population in 2011 unable to afford the cost of a required diet (CoRD) even with 100% income spent on food would be 63.3% or 527.4 million. There is a lack of improvement in food security and uneven progress in economic access to healthy diets. This is a wake-up call. For this to change, there needs to be a transformation of India’s agri-food system so that it builds resilience in its major drivers and addresses inequalities, ensuring that healthy diets are available and affordable for all.
Unhealthy diets in India
Diets in India are generally unhealthy and there is an imbalance in composition in relation to the EAT-Lancet reference (‘the first full scientific review of what constitutes a healthy diet from a sustainable food system’) or the recommendations by the Indian Council of Medical Research. In fact, qualifying such reference diets would not be affordable for much of the low income population. In South Asia, a reference diet might cost 60% of the mean daily per capita household income. The lack of affordability of healthy foods may be one of the reasons for their low consumption in India.
However, in the midst of subsidies and market regulation of prices of basic food such as cereals in India, low affordability may not be the sole reason for non-compliance with required food intake.
Evidence suggests that the richest 5% of Indian households too consume less of protein rich food against processed food. This points to a lack of availability, accessibility, awareness, and acceptability being the other major causes for the poor quality of diets.
On the Global Hunger Index
Going back to the assessment of hunger globally and in India, there is continuing controversy in relation to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) that places India poorly in relation to other nations. However, close attention to this issue has not been given as the GHI connects less with hunger per say. This is because its components are more about nutrition and early age mortality. The realistic hunger domain may go well beyond food insecurity and nutritional compliance to the basics of having a square meal a day. This is a statistic that is much available in our own surveys which shows the number of meals consumed by individuals in the last 30 days. Such information reveals the average number of meals consumed in a day. According to these statistics by the NSSO on the recent consumption expenditure surveys, 3.2% of the Indian population are not compliant with a minimum of 60 meals in a month, which is equal to a square meal a day. In fact, more than 50% of the population are reported to have three meals a day. Using the calculation of those who fall short of having two square meals a day, one arrives at the calculation of 2.5% of the population that might fall under this category. In a population of 140 crore, this can be calculated as 3.5 crore, which is still a number that cannot be ignored.
World Food Day this year has the theme ‘Right to foods for a better life and a better future’, which highlights the significance of a hunger-free world with the universal right to food. Although a right to food campaign in India has gained sufficient momentum to ensure food security for every citizen, the ground reality reflects some failure. There are situations and circumstances wherein individuals may go hungry as they do not have the means to buy food. But mechanisms to provide free food by setting up food banks that evolve as a way to avoid food waste may be an ideal alternative. Discouraging food waste and organising proper food collection and distribution may be a step in ensuring that no one is left hungry.
A nation that is proud about being self-sufficient in its food needs to qualify as being a hunger-free nation as well. Food sufficient regions in the world should ensure redistribution in a humanitarian manner so that the food deficient ones are not left out.
S. Irudaya Rajan is Chair at the International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), Kerala. U.S. Mishra is Honorary Visiting Professor at the International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), Kerala
Published – October 16, 2024 12:16 am IST
