Running Head: Food Insecurity in India 1

Food Insecurity in India

Eliu Figueroa

Arizona State University

April 1, 2019
Running Head: Food Insecurity in India 2

India is home to 195.9 million people who suffer from hunger, since India contains 1/8th

of the world’s population it is very alarming that such a large group of people suffer from food

insecurity due to the size of their population and underdeveloped technology. Despite the rising

obesity rates in India, food insecurity remains a major issue for India’s 195 million

undernourished people. Food security is a human right, unfortunately many people of India

suffer from food insecurity because of India's oversized population, poverty, and inefficient food

distribution, and improper agricultural skills in rural areas.

In 2014 a study concerning food insecurity in households was conducted in a colony in

South Delhi, India. The study used the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) to

retrieve data on 250 families and the factors associated with food insecurity. It was found that

out of the 250 families 72.2% of households were food insecure, 49.2% are mildly insecure and

18.8% were moderately insecure, and 9.2% being severely insecure (Chinnakali 2014). This

study found that low income was the greatest factor for food insecurity in these families. The

average monthly income of all households from this study was 9784 INR (Indian Rupee), which

is roughly 141 USD. (Chinnakali 2014). This is a major setback for these households because

that is not enough money to not only purchase food but pay for bills or buy other necessities.

More often than not people move from rural areas to more urban areas in search of better paying

jobs, resulting in people settling for jobs that pay low wages. Although in some cases people find

good paying jobs the matter of the fact is food prices continue to increase putting them back in

the same situation they were in before.

Even with all this evidence people refuse to acknowledge that food insecurity is a major

issue because of a sudden increase of obese people in India. A study done by the Nutrition
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Foundation of India on 5000 children in a private school found that 29% of the children were

overweight and 6% were obese(Chatterjee 2002). It is believed that Indias diabetes population

can increase from 19 million to 25 million in the next 6 years (Chatterjee 2002). That’s another

issue of its own, but people fail to realise that the reason there are obese people and children is

the fact they have more acces to food, can spend more on food, and have good living conditions.

You may wonder how good living conditions affect food insecurity in households, well the

reason for this is many people of India who have a little income live in slums found in urban

areas. Typically in these slums hygiene is not the biggest priority which leads to people being ill,

when a person becomes ill they cannot work therefore cannot make money to purchase food.

Now if a family cannot purchase food because of illness, how can they improve their health if

they have no food to eat to be stronger and get better. Unfortunately many people fall in to this

cycle of illness prohibiting them from earning money and purchasing food.

Another major contributor to food insecurity is India’s inefficient food distribution to its

1.3 billion people and improper crop growth. It is seen that at least 10% of all grain production is

lost during transportation from farms to markets and from markets to the people (Chyne 2017).

This 10% of lost grain can feed 70-100 million people, the Food Incorporation of India became

an inefficient operation due to political pressure and having to collect and store grains passed its

capacity (Chyne 2017). This results in lots of grain either rotting away or being eaten by rodents

which can lead to more sanitary issues. India’s government created programs to prioritize the

growth of three major crops which are rice, wheat and corn, although this brings huge production

of crops, India neglects other important crops like sorghum, millets, and pulses which are

actually more nutritious than the previous three crops (Chyne 2017). This results in the prices of
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the three crops to increase and the consumption levels to decrease which leads to malnutrition.

This is a major issue because despite India producing all this food, they are not doing it in a

proper way that can make food more cost effective and increase the amount of nutritious foods.

A major effect of food insecurity is the stunted growth of children, in urban areas 15.4%

of children were severely stunted and 35.6% of children were stunted. This is a major issue

because children are not getting enough food to grow properly.

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