India progresses in feeding people, has miles to go to meet target

Despite improvement, one in four of the world's undernourished live in the country

Countries are committed to ensure that the world is free of hunger by 2030. But six years away from the deadline, the “zero hunger” target is looking increasingly difficult, according to the World Report 2024 on ‘State of Food Security and Nutrition’.

Progress in improving food security and economic access to healthy diets has been modest, said the report published by five international agencies last week. India is among the few countries that have had a sharp decline in the proportion of population that can’t afford a healthy diet.

The share of the Indian population unable to pay for a healthy diet dropped by 14 percentage points to 55.6 per cent in 2022 compared to 2017. It means such a population has dropped from 941 million in 2017 to 788 million in 2022. Bhutan and Bangladesh, India’s neighbours, are among the eight countries that have seen a faster decline than India. About 59 per cent of Pakistan's population could not afford a healthy diet in 2022, a percentage point higher compared to 2017. Bhutan is the best performer in South Asia and Sri Lanka the worst.

Globally, the proportion of people unable to afford a healthy diet has dropped by 5 percentage points since 2017 (chart 1, click image for interactive link).

The cost of a healthy diet in India has increased by 17.5 per cent to $ 3.36 per person per day in six years but it is cheaper than many countries. The global average price of a healthy diet peaked at $3.96 per person per day in 2022. The report regards the cost of a healthy diet in terms of the affordability of the least expensive, locally available food that meets the energy and dietary requirements of an adult. It considered prices on a purchasing power parity basis in dollars. (chart 2).

India started a free food programme known as 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana' during the pandemic and extended it for another five years from January 2024 at an estimated cost of Rs 11.8 trillion. It covers more than 800 million beneficiaries.

The report said 83 per cent of the annual public spending on food security and health in India is used for consumption – it includes food availability, access and utilisation – compared to 14 per cent in Brazil, 40 per cent in Mexico and 35 per cent in South Africa.

Despite such spending more than a fourth of the world’s undernourished live in India, though the absolute number of people facing hunger in the country has declined between 2004-06 and 2021-23. India has the largest number of people facing undernourishment in the world (chart 3).

With undernourishment levels in some countries comparable to 2008-09, the world’s hunger target has been set back by 15 years, says the report jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.