Affordability of Nutritious Diets in Rural India

Data from the National Family Health Survey of 2015-16 (NFHS-4) shows that India performs poorly on several undernutrition indicators, with high rates of stunting (38 per cent), wasting (21 per cent) and anaemia (58 per cent) among pre-school students. With 23 per cent of its adult women underweight, and 53 per cent anaemic, the paper notes that India is the world’s largest contributor to maternal and child undernutrition.

India’s nutritional status is affected by ‘basic’ causes such as resource unavailability and the political climate, and by ‘underlying’ causes including inadequate access to food and health services, and an unhealthy environment. Nutritional status is further affected by ‘immediate’ causes including inadequate dietary intake and morbidity.

The ‘Cost of a Recommended Diet’ (CoRD) in India rose sharply after 2007 – a period of global food price inflation.

The paper finds that nutritious diets are highly unaffordable, with 45 to 64 per cent of rural Indians unable to afford the recommended diet.

Despite an improvement in the wages after 2007, recommended diets account for 50 to 60 per cent of male and 70 to 80 per cent of female daily wages. This cost does not take into account individual taste and preferences, or family size, and is based on the cheapest items in each food group.

The study notes that minimum MGNREGA wages cover only a third of the individual cost of a nutritious diet for a worker.

According to the study, “there is a strong nutritional rationale for using agricultural diversification to curb price inflation for nutrient-dense foods.” Also, “diversification can increase access to nutrient-dense food for the rural poor not well connected to the market.” 

The cost of nutritious diets in India increased from 2001 to 2011. In the same period, wage growth for unskilled rural workers outpaced rising dietary costs for both men and women. The paper found that there was substantial variation in food affordability across rural India. This result demonstrates the scope for economic growth to improve diets, and for food policy reforms to reduce the real prices of nutritious foods. The authors also stress on reducing gender inequities and the significance of increasing women’s income.

The report states that a significant challenge for nutrition policies in India is to promote healthy traditional diets, and limit the advertising of and access to unhealthy and processed foods.

India has rapidly rising rates of obesity and related non-communicable diseases. Given that problem and the persistence of undernutrition in India, the report emphasises the urgent need to address the widespread unaffordability of a nutritious diet, and to encourage its consumption.

Focus and Factoids by Neymat Chadha.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.