Food security, nutrition remain concerns
The State of Food Security and Nutrition report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) highlights the continuing challenges faced by the world in eradicating hunger and malnutrition. On the whole, the world has lost some of the gains it had made, and the levels of undernourishment now are comparable to that in 2008-2009. Global hunger levels have remained the same for three consecutive years; large numbers of people continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition. The report emphasises the need to transform and strengthen agri-food systems, address inequalities, and ensure access to affordable and healthy diets for all. It also calls for increased and more cost-effective financing systems for food security and nutrition. It has noted the impact of global conflict, climatic vagaries and economic slowdown on food and nutrition requirements.
Though there are positives about India, the report also shows some areas of concern. Hunger in India declined from 21.4% of the population in 2004-6 to 13.7 per cent in 2021-23. India made progress when the proportion of undernourished and hungry people has increased or remained stagnant globally. The proportion of the population suffering from food insecurity, stunting and low birth weight has gone down in the country in recent years. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among infants has gone up by 17 percentage points. But India still has the highest prevalence of wasting and anaemia in South Asia. The budgetary allocations for nutritional outcomes has seen only a marginal increase and those for Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 programme have seen a decline. Much of the credit for access to food goes to the distribution of free food grains under the National Food Security Act, and that is a big shield against deprivation for a large segment of the population.
One major problem that limits access to nutrition is lack of affordability. The cost of a healthy diet has consistently increased in the country. About 56 per cent of the population could not afford a healthy diet in 2022. But the number of obese and overweight children has also increased. The report says that the proportion of overweight children increased from 2.2 per cent to 2.8 per cent between 2012 and 2022. There are other studies also that show that obesity has increased not only among children but across the whole population. One reason for this may be the increase in the popularity of junk food. So the challenge is not only to provide enough food to the population but also to ensure that people have access to healthy and nutritious food.