Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India
In 2015–16 some 38% of preschool children in India were stunted, 21% wasted, and more than half of Indian mothers and young children were anemic. Though widely studied, surprisingly little research on malnutrition in India explores the role of diets, particularly the affordability of nutritious diet...
| Autores principales: | , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Elsevier
2021
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142556 |
| _version_ | 1855514977297760256 |
|---|---|
| author | Raghunathan, Kalyani Headey, Derek D. Herforth, Anna |
| author_browse | Headey, Derek D. Herforth, Anna Raghunathan, Kalyani |
| author_facet | Raghunathan, Kalyani Headey, Derek D. Herforth, Anna |
| author_sort | Raghunathan, Kalyani |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | In 2015–16 some 38% of preschool children in India were stunted, 21% wasted, and more than half of Indian mothers and young children were anemic. Though widely studied, surprisingly little research on malnutrition in India explores the role of diets, particularly the affordability of nutritious diets given low wages and the significant structural problems facing India’s agricultural sector. To explore this we used nationally representative rural price and wage data to estimate the least cost means of satisfying India’s national dietary guidelines, referred to as the Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD), and assessed the affordability of this diet relative to male and female wages for unskilled laborers. Although we find that dietary costs have increased substantially for both men and women, rural wage rates increased more rapidly, implying that nutritious diets became substantially more affordable over time. However, in absolute terms nutritious diets in 2011 were still expensive relative to unskilled wages, constituting approximately 80–90% of female and 50–60% of male daily wages. Overall, we estimate that 63–76% of the rural poor could not afford a recommended diet in 2011. Achieving nutritional security in India requires a much more holistic focus on improving the affordability of the full range of nutritious food groups (not just cereals), a reappraisal of social protection schemes in light of the cost of more complete nutrition, ensuring that economic growth results in sustained income growth for the poor, and more timely and transparent monitoring of food prices, incomes and dietary costs. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace142556 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1425562025-02-24T06:48:24Z Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India Raghunathan, Kalyani Headey, Derek D. Herforth, Anna income rural population gender market prices healthy diets affordability nutrition food prices diet cost of diet food systems women In 2015–16 some 38% of preschool children in India were stunted, 21% wasted, and more than half of Indian mothers and young children were anemic. Though widely studied, surprisingly little research on malnutrition in India explores the role of diets, particularly the affordability of nutritious diets given low wages and the significant structural problems facing India’s agricultural sector. To explore this we used nationally representative rural price and wage data to estimate the least cost means of satisfying India’s national dietary guidelines, referred to as the Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD), and assessed the affordability of this diet relative to male and female wages for unskilled laborers. Although we find that dietary costs have increased substantially for both men and women, rural wage rates increased more rapidly, implying that nutritious diets became substantially more affordable over time. However, in absolute terms nutritious diets in 2011 were still expensive relative to unskilled wages, constituting approximately 80–90% of female and 50–60% of male daily wages. Overall, we estimate that 63–76% of the rural poor could not afford a recommended diet in 2011. Achieving nutritional security in India requires a much more holistic focus on improving the affordability of the full range of nutritious food groups (not just cereals), a reappraisal of social protection schemes in light of the cost of more complete nutrition, ensuring that economic growth results in sustained income growth for the poor, and more timely and transparent monitoring of food prices, incomes and dietary costs. 2021-02-01 2024-05-22T12:10:40Z 2024-05-22T12:10:40Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142556 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133638 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101983 Open Access Elsevier Raghunathan, Kalyani; Headey, Derek D.; and Herforth, Anna. 2021. Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India. Food 99(February 2021): 101982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101982 |
| spellingShingle | income rural population gender market prices healthy diets affordability nutrition food prices diet cost of diet food systems women Raghunathan, Kalyani Headey, Derek D. Herforth, Anna Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India |
| title | Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India |
| title_full | Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India |
| title_fullStr | Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India |
| title_short | Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India |
| title_sort | affordability of nutritious diets in rural india |
| topic | income rural population gender market prices healthy diets affordability nutrition food prices diet cost of diet food systems women |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142556 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT raghunathankalyani affordabilityofnutritiousdietsinruralindia AT headeyderekd affordabilityofnutritiousdietsinruralindia AT herforthanna affordabilityofnutritiousdietsinruralindia |