Indian Journal of Human Development

This article analyzes incidence of childhood poverty in India and the states in the post-reform period by considering monetary poverty, malnutrition and educational deprivation. It focuses on malnutrition and analyzes the determinants of malnutrition by considering child, mother and household-specific characteristics. It ranks states on their levels of child well-being and also on the progress made in improving the well-being of their children. It also examines whether growth is adequate to eliminate child poverty.

In this article, we study the effect of an exogenous increase in wheat and rice price subsidy to poor families resulting from a targeted food price subsidy programme in India called the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) on micronutrient intake in low-income families. Descriptive results show that wheat and rice have one of the lowest micronutrient density scores, suggesting that these are poor suppliers of micronutrients. Empirical analysis suggests that the increase in monthly per capita subsidy amount of ₹15–18 resulting from the TPDS expansion lowered calcium intake by 12–14 per cent and had negligible to small (often negative) effects on the consumption of most micronutrients.

This study uses the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data to estimate Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model for height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ) and weight-for-height (WHZ) to understand how the determinants of intergenerational transmission, feeding and care practices, and the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) vary in their impact when these commonly used measures of child nutritional status are considered together in a systems framework. As expected mother’s height, BMI and anaemia levels are all highly important in explaining the variations with large impact of height on HAZ, of BMI on WAZ and of anaemia on WHZ. Initiation of breastfeeding within an hour of child’s birth, exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months and inclusion of protein rich diets for the older children has a large impact on HAZ, and so does access of daily food supplements from the ICDS by rural children. Other predictors such as wealth status, safe water access, sanitation and use of clean cooking fuel by the households are found to be strongly associated with all the indicators. The results from this study strengthen the evidence that though multiple determinants play a role in a child’s growth, the key factors are in the mother to child transmission and in quality of early child care of feeding habits and preventive and curative health care practices.

In the context of the recent evidence of a revival of the PDS in certain states, its impact between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012 on the nutritional indicators of children aged 7–19 years was studied by state. This exercise showed that the PDS has had a significant impact on the longer-term nutritional indicator in three of the four functioning states and on the short-term indicator in two reviving states. This indicates that the revival has begun to translate into nutritional gains and catch-up growth of children in some states. Two sets of indicators were used to understand the mechanisms through which these gains were attained. One considered the dependence on the calories provided by PDS commodities; this showed a high dependence on PDS for sufficient intake of calories in functioning states and increasing dependence in certain reviving states. The second indicator was an index of dietary variety. This followed a pattern of higher dietary diversity in beneficiary households in most of the functioning and reviving states. These are encouraging results which offer scope for further reforms.

Reports emerging from recent studies on public distribution system (PDS) in India show significant improvements in consumption of food grains distributed through the PDS. Odisha is categorized as one of the states which has seen some sort of a revival of PDS (Khera, 2011). This article takes a long-term view of PDS in the State of Odisha, and argues that geographical targeting in Odisha had created a complex system of targeting, leading to large-scale errors of exclusion and information distortions at the ground level. The state subsidy provided by the Government of Odisha had in the past contributed to increased consumption of PDS rice immediately after introduction of targeting. However, in August 2008, the Government of Odisha wound up geographical targeting and started following a uniform price policy which seems to have contributed to a better performing PDS in the state. However, evidences show that in districts where universal PDS is in place, there are still large numbers of families outside the fold of PDS.

This article analyses food insecurity, poverty risk and inequality in different castes and religious groups in India by utilizing National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) household-level information between 1999–2000 and 2011–2012. The article provides an assessment of the socio-economic characteristics of food-insecure households of the country, and it finds that the poverty risk estimated on the basis of relative poverty line increased both in rural and urban India between 1999–2000 and 2011–2012. The study finds that the likelihood of incidence of food security for the population increased, irrespective of social and religious groups. Food security was lower in Muslims than in Hindus. The relative degree of food security was significantly less among the tribal people compared to other social groups.

This article examines the status, progress and challenges of managing food and nutrition security in Nepal, one of the least developed countries, by using data from the national living standards surveys conducted jointly by Government of Nepal and World Bank. Nepal, like many other developing countries, is struggling to ensure food and nutrition security. This study analyses the dimensions of food security in terms of availability, access and utilization (nutritional outcome). The analysis shows that the trends in food consumption pattern and nutritional intake have changed significantly overtime. The diversity in dietary pattern has become more apparent over time and the dietary diversity depicts a positive impact on nutritional outcome.

This article examines the use of indigenous communication forms to convey food security messages in chronically food-insecure areas of Irob and Gulomekeda districts in eastern Tigray, rural Ethiopia. The study findings showed that there are no explicitly designed rural food security communication strategies, but food security messages are communicated through frequent public meetings. However, respondents believed that public meetings are dominated by the views and interests of government officials and development agents, which rarely entertain peoples’ needs. The findings also showed that indigenous communication forms are widely practised in eastern Tigray, which rural people distinguish as potential conduits to convey different messages. Development agents and food security experts also believed that these communication forms have the potential to mobilize communities and enable them to actively engage in food security programmes. Thus, the overall result of the study shows that despite the knowledge about the potential of indigenous communication forms to convey food security messages, development agents are not using them in food security programmes, which has resulted in low-level community participation in the food security programmes.

Rajeev Malhotra, Indian Public Policy Report 2014. New Delhi: Jindal School of Government and Public Policy and Oxford University Press, 2014, ₹782, 264 pp.

Praveen Jha and Geetha Rani (eds), Right to Education in India: Resources, Institutions and Public Policy. New Delhi: Routledge, 2016, ₹895 (hardback), 366 pp.