How India has done on key areas of roti, kapda, makaan since Independence

From the time that India depended on food supplies from the United States of America to feed its people to a period of relative self-sufficiency after the green revolution, India has moved in various ways to ensure that its people jave enough to eat. The average Indian now has around 28 per cent more food available than what he had around the time of Independence, shows an examination of government data.

Per capita availability of foodgrains was 394.9 grams per day in 1951. This has increased to 506.1 grams, according to provisional 2017 figures based on the latest economic survey data. What is perhaps more interesting is the availability of pulses in particular, which has fallen over the decades.

Chart 1: Roti

Production of pulses in India has been affected by low yields and uncertainty. Farmers don’t prefer to grow pulses on fertile, well-irrigated land because of poor per hectare returns, leading to unstable and low yields, according to ‘Production, demand and import of pulses in India’, published in the Indian Journal of Agronomy in 2016.

“Inadequate adoption of production technology, higher price volatility, production risk and low level of irrigation are the important influencing factors responsible for stagnation in the productivity of these crops,” says the article by authors IPS Ahlawat from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Purushottam Sharma from the ICAR-Indian Institute of Soyabean Research and Ummed Singh from the Indian Institute of Pulses Research. 

The human body needs 50 grams of protein a day but Indians consume just about 10 grams. Pulses are a significant source of protein in India, noted ‘Enhancing Pulses Production in India for Improved Livelihood and Nutritional Security: An Analysis of Constraints and Strategies’. It is authored by Pushpa Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Extension Education in Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, K M Singh, its director, and Brajesh Shahi, its nodal officer.

“It is expected that the production will not keep pace with demand and imports are anticipated to grow to 5.1 Mt by 2023 (OECD-FAO, 2014), leading to a progressive decline in per capita availability of pulses in India,” said the 2016 paper. 

Kapda and makaan (clothing and housing) have their own set of problems. But they seem to be doing better in recent years.

Data on clothing is slightly problematic. For example, data prior to 1980-81 is calendar-year wise. It is in meters till 1984-85, but in square meter from 1985-86 onwards. Also, there were no separate figures available for blended and mixed fabrics prior to 1969. These were included under man-made fibre fabrics after 1969.

Despite these limitations, the economic survey data would suggest that there has been a more-or-less steady improvement in the availability of clothing.

Chart 2-Kapda

There is no direct indicator of housing penetration. However, the Central Statistics Office's ‘Selected Socio-Economic Statistics India 2017’ provides an indication of the possible gap in the availability of housing. It looked at the number of households in census figures. It then compared it to the number of occupied residential dwellings. The difference between the two would point to the number of households who do not occupy a house.  This deficit in houses has risen to 10.7 million as of 2011. This works out to 4.34 per cent, as a percentage of households. This is the highest since the 1981 census, although it is lower than the 1971 peak of 9.66 per cent.

                               































Chart 3-Housing

Another metric which perhaps merits greater attention is per capita availability of water. There has been a drastic decline in the availability of water. It dropped from 5200 cubic metres in 1951 to 1545 cubic metres as of the 2011 census .

Seventy years after independence, India has some way to go.

Source: Selected socio-economic statistics India 2017 (Office of the Registrar General, India)