There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of…

Question

There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items squeezing their food-budget. — Elucidate.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Poverty has fallen faster than hunger because households now pay for health, schooling and other non-food essentials that weak public services fail to provide, squeezing what they spend on nutritious food. Food fell from about 53% of rural spending in 2011-12 to about 46% in 2022-23.

**Introduction**

Poverty on the Tendulkar line fell from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 21.9% in 2011-12, yet hunger has not fallen in step. Deaton and Dreze (2009) called this the calorie puzzle: rising real incomes alongside falling calorie intake.

**Evidence of the Poverty-Hunger Divergence**

1. **Calorie puzzle**: NSS rounds show per capita calorie intake declining from the 1980s even as real spending rose.
2. **Shrinking food share**: Food fell from about 53% of rural spending in 2011-12 to about 46% in the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23.
3. **Malnutrition outlasts poverty**: NFHS-4 (2015-16) still found 38.4% of children stunted, far above what the fall in poverty would predict.

**How Shrinking Social Expenditure Squeezes the Food Budget**

SKETCH: flow | From Thin Public Spending to Hunger
- Weak public services
- Out-of-pocket costs
- Non-food spending rises
- Food budget squeezed
- Cheaper, poorer diets

1. **Health costs**: Out-of-pocket spending was 64.2% of total health expenditure in 2013-14, and Selvaraj and others (2018) estimated it pushed about 5.5 crore Indians into poverty in a year.
2. **Private schooling**: Weak government schools push poor parents towards fees, coaching and transport, paid out of the kitchen budget.
3. **Non-food essentials**: Fuel, rent, mobile phones and travel are now unavoidable, and many Ujjwala households return to firewood because refills cost too much.
4. **Stagnant rural wages**: Slow wage growth leaves no surplus, so households cut the most flexible item, nutritious food.

**Conclusion**

Poverty lines measure purchasing power, not well-being: when the State withdraws from health and education, the poor pay with their diets. Strong public services that release household income for food are the surest route to Article 47 and SDG 2.

There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items squeezing their food-budget. — Elucidate.

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