India is eating more, but not better-

Why our nutrition crisis persists?

- BY R. SURYAMURTHY

India has long prided itself on achieving self-sufficiency in food production. We have warehouses overflowing with grain, a sprawling public distribution system, and a catalogue of welfare schemes promising to end hunger. But behind the facade of abundance lies a quieter, more insidious crisis — one of stagnating nutrition and widening inequality in what Indians are actually eating.

The government’s newly released Nutritional Intake in India report, based on back-to-back Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) for 2022-23 and 2023-24, confirms what nutritionists and development economists have been warning for years: India’s food security approach remains stuck in the past. We are still measuring success by how many calories people consume — instead of what kind of calories, how balanced their diets are, or whether the most vulnerable are getting what they need to thrive.

The numbers may appear stable, even comforting, on the surface. Calorie intake per capita is holding steady: 2212 Kcal in rural areas and 2240 Keal in urban India for 2023 24. Protein and fat consumption have nudged up marginally. The poorest segments have seen slight improvements, with the bottom 5% of rural households increasing their calorie intake by 81 Kal from the previous year.

But this is nutritional stagnation disguised as progress. These are gains that barely move the needle — especially when weighed against a decade of economic growth, rising household consumption, and billions spent on food and nutrition schemes. And they come nowhere close to the kind of dietary improvements needed for a country aiming to harness its demographic dividend.