IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v50y2015icp53-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The great Indian calorie debate: Explaining rising undernourishment during India’s rapid economic growth

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Lisa C.

Abstract

The prevalence of undernourishment in India – the percent of people consuming insufficient calories to meet their energy requirements – has been rising steadily since the mid 1980s. Paradoxically, this period has been one of robust poverty reduction and rapid economic growth. The reasons for the apparent reductions in calorie consumption underlying increased undernourishment have been the subject of intense debate both within India and internationally. This paper critically reviews this debate, finding that is has taken place outside of the context of India’s recent nutrition and epidemiological transitions, which appear to have brought with them increased, not decreased, food consumption. The debate has also taken place under the unchallenged assumption that the data on which the conflicting trends are based, collected as part of the country’s Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCESs), are reliable. The paper provides supporting literature and empirical evidence that a probable key source of the calorie decline is incomplete collection of data on food consumed away from peoples’ homes, which is widespread and rapidly increasing. Complete measurement of this food source in the HCESs of all developing countries is vital for accurate measurement of both undernourishment and poverty – and for resolving the Indian calorie debate.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Lisa C., 2015. "The great Indian calorie debate: Explaining rising undernourishment during India’s rapid economic growth," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 53-67.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:53-67
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.10.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919214001535
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.10.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raghav Gaiha & Raghbendra Jha & Vani S. Kulkarni, 2009. "How Pervasive is Eating Out in India?," ASARC Working Papers 2009-17, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    2. Reardon, Thomas & Gulati, Ashok, 2008. "The rise of supermarkets and their development implications: International experience relevant for India," IFPRI discussion papers 752, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Pingali, Prabhu & Khwaja, Yasmeen, 2004. "Globalisation of Indian diets and the transformation of food supply systems," ESA Working Papers 23796, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    4. repec:bla:devpol:v:21:y:2003:i:5-6:p:531-553 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Beegle, Kathleen & De Weerdt, Joachim & Friedman, Jed & Gibson, John, 2012. "Methods of household consumption measurement through surveys: Experimental results from Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 3-18.
    6. Hengyun Ma & Jikun Huang & Frank Fuller & Scott Rozelle, 2006. "Getting Rich and Eating Out: Consumption of Food Away from Home in Urban China," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 54(1), pages 101-119, March.
    7. Prabhu Pingali & Yasmeen Khwaja, 2004. "Globalization of Indian Diets and the Transformation of Food Supply Systems," Working Papers 04-05, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    8. Salois, Matthew J. & Tiffin, J. Richard & Balcombe, Kelvin George, 2011. "Impact of Income on Calorie and Nutrient Intakes: A Cross-Country Analysis," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103647, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Todd, Jessica E. & Mancino, Lisa & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2010. "The Impact of Food Away from Home on Adult Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 58298, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    10. Mancino, Lisa & Todd, Jessica & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2009. "Separating what we eat from where: Measuring the effect of food away from home on diet quality," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 557-562, December.
    11. Bouis, Howarth E. & Haddad, Lawrence J., 1992. "Are estimates of calorie-income fxelasticities too high? : A recalibration of the plausible range," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-364, October.
    12. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Indicators 2012," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6014.
    13. Linh Vu Hoang, 2009. "Analysis of Calorie and Micronutrient Consumption in Vietnam," Working Papers 14, Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN), Vietnam.
    14. Deepankar Basu & Amit Basole, 2012. "The Calorie Consumption Puzzle in India: An Empirical Investigation," Working Papers wp285, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    15. Senauer, Benjamin, 2006. "The Growing Market for High-Value Food Products in Developing and Transition Countries," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 37(01), pages 1-6, March.
    16. Ogundari, Kolawole & Abdulai, Awudu, 2013. "Examining the heterogeneity in calorie–income elasticities: A meta-analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 119-128.
    17. Bouis, Howarth & Haddad, Lawrence & Kennedy, Eileen, 1992. "Does it matter how we survey demand for food?: Evidence from Kenya and the Philippines," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 349-360, October.
    18. Shahidur R. Khandker & Gayatri B. Koolwal & Hussain A. Samad, 2010. "Handbook on Impact Evaluation : Quantitative Methods and Practices," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2693.
    19. repec:mpr:mprres:2894 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Ray, Ranjan, 2007. "Dietary Changes, Calorie Intake and Undernourishment: A Comparative Study of India and Vietnam," Working Papers 2133, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised Jul 2007.
    21. Gregory Clark & Michael Huberman & Peter H. Lindert, 1995. "A British food puzzle, 1770–1850," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(2), pages 215-237, May.
    22. Raghav Gaiha & Raghbendra Jha & Vani S. Kulkarni, 2010. "Affluence, Obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases in India," ASARC Working Papers 2010-08, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    23. Angus Deaton & Valerie Kozel, 2005. "Data and Dogma: The Great Indian Poverty Debate," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 20(2), pages 177-199.
    24. Desai, Sonalde & Dubey, Amaresh & Joshi, Brij Lal & Sen, Mitali & Sharif, Abusaleh & Vanneman, Reeve, 2010. "Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198065128.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bhuyan, Biswabhusan & Sahoo, Bimal Kishore & Suar, Damodar, 2020. "Nutritional status, poverty, and relative deprivation among socio-economic and gender groups in India: Is the growth inclusive?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    2. Jumrani, Jaya, 2023. "How responsive are nutrients in India? Some recent evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Carpena, Fenella, 2019. "How do droughts impact household food consumption and nutritional intake? A study of rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 349-369.
    4. John Gibson, 2016. "Poverty Measurement: We Know Less than Policy Makers Realize," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 430-442, September.
    5. Gibson, John & Boe-Gibson, Geua & Stichbury, Glen, 2015. "Urban land expansion in India 1992–2012," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 100-113.
    6. Biswabhusan Bhuyan & Bimal Kishore Sahoo & Damodar Suar, 2020. "Quantile Regression Analysis of Predictors of Calorie Demand in India: An Implication for Sustainable Development Goals," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(4), pages 825-859, December.
    7. Nidhi Kaicker & Vani Kulkarni & Raghav Gaiha, 2018. "Is variety the spice of life? India’s nutrition experience," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 282018, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    8. Edwige Landais & Raphaël Pelloquin & Elodie Maître D’hôtel & Mai Truong Tuyet & Nga Hoang Thu & Yen Bui Thi Thao & Ha Do Thi Phuong & Trang Tran Thi Thu & Jérôme Somé & Christophe Béné & Eric O Verger, 2024. "Assessing food consumed away from home in low-and middle-income countries by developing specific modules for household surveys: Experimental evidence from Vietnam and Burkina Faso," Post-Print hal-04815728, HAL.
    9. Himelein,Kristen, 2022. "Determining the Caloric Content of Food Consumed away from Home : An Application to theConstruction of a Cost-of-Basic-Needs Poverty Line," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10018, The World Bank.
    10. Balarajan, Yarlini & Reich, Michael R., 2016. "Political economy of child nutrition policy: A qualitative study of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 88-98.
    11. Yu, Xiaohua & Abler, David, 2016. "Matching food with mouths: A statistical explanation to the abnormal decline of per capita food consumption in rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 36-43.
    12. Fiedler, John L. & Yadav, Suryakant, 2017. "How can we better capture food away from Home? Lessons from India’s linking person-level meal and household-level food data," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 81-93.
    13. Yu, X. & Zhang, X. & You, L., 2018. "Does The Granary County Subsidy Policy Lead to Manipulation of Grain Production Data in China? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277298, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Anirban Dasgupta, 2021. "Peasant Production in India: How the ‘Need Economy’ Facilitates Accumulation," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(2), pages 217-240, March.
    15. Chandana Maitra & Vani Sethi & Sayeed Unisa & Sriram Shankar, 2019. "Household Food Insecurity and Maternal and Child Nutritional Status: Evidence from Maharashtra," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 63-101, November.
    16. Deepthi E. Kolady & Shivendra Kumar Srivastava & David Just & Jaspal Singh, 2021. "Food away from home and the reversal of the calorie intake decline in India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(2), pages 369-384, April.
    17. Conforti, Piero & Grünberger, Klaus & Troubat, Nathalie, 2017. "The impact of survey characteristics on the measurement of food consumption," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 43-52.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chandana Maitra & Sriram Shankar & D.S. Prasada Rao, 2016. "Income Poor or Calorie Poor? Who should get the Subsidy?," Discussion Papers Series 564, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    2. Basole, Amit & Basu, Deepankar, 2015. "Fuelling Calorie Intake Decline: Household-Level Evidence from Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 82-95.
    3. De Zhou & Xiaohua Yu, 2015. "Calorie Elasticities with Income Dynamics: Evidence from the Literature," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 37(4), pages 575-601.
    4. repec:qld:uq2004:508 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Conforti, Piero & Grünberger, Klaus & Troubat, Nathalie, 2017. "The impact of survey characteristics on the measurement of food consumption," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 43-52.
    6. Kaushal, Neeraj & Muchomba, Felix M., 2015. "How Consumer Price Subsidies affect Nutrition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 25-42.
    7. Trinh Thi, Huong & Simioni, Michel & Thomas-Agnan, Christine, 2018. "Assessing the nonlinearity of the calorie-income relationship: An estimation strategy – With new insights on nutritional transition in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 192-204.
    8. Ameye, Hannah & De Weerdt, Joachim & Gibson, John, 2021. "Measuring macro- and micronutrient consumption in multi-purpose surveys: Evidence from a survey experiment in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Angus Deaton & Jean Dreze, 2008. "Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations," Working Papers 1071, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    10. John Gibson, 2016. "Poverty Measurement: We Know Less than Policy Makers Realize," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 430-442, September.
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o6r34k5bcm3iopv is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Filippini, Massimo & Srinivasan, Suchita, 2019. "Impact of religious participation, social interactions and globalization on meat consumption: Evidence from India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/14195 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Dang,Hai-Anh H. & Kilic,Talip & Carletto,Calogero & Abanokova,Kseniya, 2021. "Poverty Imputation in Contexts without Consumption Data : A Revisit with Further Refinements," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9838, The World Bank.
    15. Almås, Ingvild & Somville, Vincent, 2020. "The effect of gender-targeted transfers: Experimental Evidence from India," CEPR Discussion Papers 15218, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Gibson, John & Kim, Bonggeun, 2013. "How reliable are household expenditures as a proxy for permanent income? Implications for the income–nutrition relationship," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 23-25.
    17. Andrej Cupak & Jan Pokrivcak & Marian Rizov, 2016. "Demand for Food Away from Home in Slovakia," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 66(4), pages 354-369, August.
    18. Mancino, Lisa & Todd, Jessica E. & Guthrie, Joanne F. & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2010. "How Food Away From Home Affects Children's Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 134700, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Jayatilleke S. Bandara, 2013. "What is Driving India’s Food Inflation? A Survey of Recent Evidence," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 14(1), pages 127-156, March.
    20. Thyberg, Krista L. & Tonjes, David J., 2016. "Drivers of food waste and their implications for sustainable policy development," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 110-123.
    21. Kenneth Harttgen & Stephan Klasen, "undated". "Analyzing Nutritional Impacts of Price and Income Related Shocks in Malawi and Uganda," UNDP Africa Policy Notes 2012-014, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa.
    22. Sarr, Ibrahima & Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Guzman Gutierrez, Carlos Santiago & Beltramo, Theresa & Verme, Paolo, 2024. "Using Cross-Survey Imputation to Estimate Poverty for Venezuelan Refugees in Colombia," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1534, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    23. Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano & Shabnam, Nadia, 2015. "The income-elasticity of calories, macro and micro nutrients: What is the literature telling us?," MPRA Paper 63754, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:53-67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.