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Nutrition In India: Facts And Interpretations

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  • Angus Deaton

    (Research Program in Development Studies Center for Health and Wellbeing Princeton University)

  • Jean Drèze

    (Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, India)

Abstract

The Indian economy has recently grown at historically unprecedented rates and is now one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Real GDP per head grew at 3.95 percent a year from 1980 to 2005, and at 5.4 percent a year from 2000 to 2005. Measured at international prices, real per capita income in India, which was two-thirds of Kenya’s in 1950, and about the same as Nigeria’s, is now two and a half times as large as per capita income in both countries. Real per capita consumption has also grown rapidly, at 2.2 percent a year in the 1980s, at 2.5 percent a year in the 1990s, and at 3.9 percent a year from 2000 to 2005. Although the household survey data show much slower rates of per capita consumption growth than do these national accounts estimates, even these slower growth rates are associated with a substantial decrease in poverty since the early 1980s, Deaton and Drèze (2002), Himanshu (2007). Yet, per capita calorie intake is declining, as is the intake of many other nutrients; indeed fats are the only major nutrient group whose per capita consumption is unambiguously increasing. Today, more than three quarters of the population live in households whose per capita calorie consumption is less than 2,100 in urban areas and 2,400 in rural areas – numbers that are often cited as “minimum requirements” in India. A related concern is that anthropometric indicators of nutrition in India, for both adults and children, are among the worst in the world. Furthermore, the improvement of these measures of nutrition appears to be slow relative to what might be expected in the light of international experience and of India’s recent high rates of economic growth. Indeed, according to the National Family Health Survey, the proportion of underweight children remained virtually unchanged between 1998-99 and 2005-06 (from 47 to 46 percent for the age group of 0-3 years). 2 Undernutrition levels in India remain higher even than for most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, even though those countries are currently much poorer than India, have grown much more slowly, and have much higher levels of infant and child mortality. In this paper, we do not attempt to provide a complete and fully documented story of poverty, nutrition and growth in India. In fact, we doubt that such an account is currently possible. Instead, our aim is to present the most important facts, to point to a number of unresolved puzzles, and to present an outline of a coherent story that is consistent with the facts. As far as the decline in per capita calorie consumption is concerned, our leading hypothesis, on which much work remains to be done, is that while real incomes and real wages have increased (leading to some nutritional improvement), there has been an offsetting reduction in calorie requirements, due to declining levels of physical activity and possibly also to various improvements in the health environment. The net effect has been a slow reduction in per capita calorie consumption. Whatever the explanation, there is historical evidence of related episodes in other countries, for example in Britain from 1775 to 1850, where in spite of rising real wages, there was no apparent increase in the real consumption of food, Clark et al (1995). Per capita calorie consumption also appears to have declined in contemporary China in the 1980s and 1990s (a period of rapid improvement in nutrition indicators such as height and weight), see Du, Lu, Zhai and Popkin (2002). One of our main points is that, just as there is no tight link between incomes and calorie consumption, there is no tight link between the numbers of calories consumed and nutritional or health status. Although the number of calories is important, so are other factors, such as a balanced diet containing a reasonable proportion of fruits, vegetables, and fats, not just calories from cereals, as are factors that affect the need for and retention of calories, such as activity 3 levels, clean water, sanitation, good hygiene practices, and vaccinations. Because of changes in these other factors, the fact that people are increasingly choosing away from a diet that is heavy in cereals does not imply that nutritional status will automatically get worse. Nor should a reduction in calories associated with lower activity levels be taken to mean that Indians are currently adequately nourished; nothing could be further from the truth. We start by documenting the decline in per capita calorie consumption (Section 2.1), as well as the state of malnutrition (Section 2.2). We then look at possible reasons for the reduction in calories (Section 3.1), and try to tease out how it fits into the general picture of economic growth and malnutrition in India (Section 3.2). Section 4 concludes. We emphasize at the outset that our analysis covers the period up to 2006, so that we do not discuss what has happened to calorie consumption or to nutritional status in the subsequent two years, during which there has been a marked increase in the price of food, both in India and around the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Angus Deaton & Jean Drèze, 2008. "Nutrition In India: Facts And Interpretations," Working papers 170, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:cde:cdewps:170
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    1. Ashish Singh, 2011. "Inequality of Opportunity in Indian Children: The Case of Immunization and Nutrition," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 30(6), pages 861-883, December.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4319 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Palanisamy, Venkatesh & Vellaichamy, Sangeetha & Sendhil, R & Jha, Girish Kumar, 2021. "Does Food Security Influence the Nutritional Status in India? Empirical Evidences from State-Level Cross Sectional Study," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315230, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Singh, Prakarsh, 2016. "Learning and Behavioral Spillovers of Nutritional Information," IZA Discussion Papers 10085, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. V B Athreya & R. V. Bhavani & G. Anuradha & R. Gopinath & A Sakthi Velan, 2015. "Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India," Working Papers id:6762, eSocialSciences.
    6. Jim Woodhill & Avinash Kishore & Jemimah Njuki & Kristal Jones & Saher Hasnain, 2022. "Food systems and rural wellbeing: challenges and opportunities," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(5), pages 1099-1121, October.
    7. Tankari, Mahamadou R., 2014. "L’élasticité calorie-revenu est-elle faible au Niger ?," Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, Editions NecPlus, vol. 95(04), pages 473-491, December.
    8. Singh, Prakarsh, 2015. "Performance pay and information: Reducing child undernutrition in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 141-163.
    9. Headey, Derek, 2011. "Was the Global Food Crisis Really a Crisis?: Simulations versus Self-Reporting," Research briefs 17, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Baffes, John & Dennis, Allen, 2013. "Long-term drivers of food prices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6455, The World Bank.
    11. John Baffes & Tassos Haniotis, 2016. "What Explains Agricultural Price Movements?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 706-721, September.
    12. Headey, Derek & Hoddinott, John & Ali, Disha & Tesfaye, Roman & Dereje, Mekdim, 2015. "The Other Asian Enigma: Explaining the Rapid Reduction of Undernutrition in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 749-761.
    13. Denis Cogneau & Remi Jedwab, 2008. "Family Income and Child Outcomes:The 1990 Cocoa Price Shock in Cote d'Ivoire," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 08-13, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    14. Raghav Gaiha & Vani Kulkarni & Manoj Pandey & Katsushi Imai, 2009. "Pro-poor growth, poverty, and inequality in rural Vietnam: welfare gap between the ethnic majority and minority," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0907, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    15. Fan, Linlin & Nogueira, Lia & Baylis, Katherine R., 2013. "Agricultural Market Reforms and Nutritional Transition in Rural China," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150203, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Woodhill, Jim & Kishore, Avinash & Njuki, Jemimah & Jones, Kristal & Hasnain, Saher, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 73: Food systems and rural wellbeing: challenges and opportunities," IFAD Research Series 321943, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    17. Singh, Prakarsh, 2011. "Performance Pay and Information: Reducing Child Malnutrition in Urban Slums," MPRA Paper 29403, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Perkins, Jessica M. & Khan, Kashif T. & Smith, George Davey & Subramanian, S.V., 2011. "Patterns and trends of adult height in India in 2005-2006," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 184-193, March.
    19. Singh, Prakarsh, 2011. "Spillovers in learning and behavior: Evidence from a nutritional information campaign in urban slums," MPRA Paper 33362, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    JEL classification:

    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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