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Prof Suryanarayana on Poverty
“Poverty means inability of a person or society
to achieve minimum level of welfare. In India calorie norm has
been applied to measure poverty. However measuring poverty only
by calorie consumption has its flaws, since it does not take into
account consumer preferences, prices of other items and other
issues. Indeed with improvement in health services calorie requirement
has declined. One cannot continue with the old calorie norm of
2400 calories. There is need to downward revision of calorie requirement
by 300 calories. Government must study alternative to PDS, such
as food stamps, with academic rigour, Improve food storage and
curb food wastage and reduce restrictions on food grain movement.”
Entrepreneurship can solve poverty,
says Narayana Murthy
February 9, 2012
India can solve its poverty only through entrepreneurship, said
Infosys founder and mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy here on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a function, organised by DC Books on the occasion
of the release of the Malayalam translation of his book ‘Better
India, Better World.’
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Prof Suryanarayana on Poverty
Prof Suryanarayana on Poverty
“Poverty means inability of a person or society to achieve minimum
level of welfare. In India calorie norm has been applied to measure
poverty. However measuring poverty only by calorie consumption
has its flaws, since it does not take into account consumer preferences,
prices of other items and other issues. Indeed with improvement
in health services calorie requirement has declined. One cannot
continue with the old calorie norm of 2400 calories. There is
need to downward revision of calorie requirement by 300 calories.
Government must study alternative to PDS, such as food stamps,
with academic rigour, Improve food storage and curb food wastage
and reduce restrictions on food grain movement.”
Profile of Prof Suryanarayana
Prof Suryanarayana has a Ph.D in. Economics from Indian Statistical
Institute, 1986. His research interest areas are Research Interests:
Development Economics, Applied Econometrics and Consumer Demand
Analysis.
Poverty means deprivation.
Poverty means inability of a person or society to achieve minimum
level of welfare.
How does one measure poverty or welfare. One way is to measure
income. One way is to measure food consumption. Another way is
to measure health outcomes, education etc.
However in a poor society like India, the calorie norm was applied
and 2400 calorie was applied. In 1938, when Nehru and other national
leaders discussed poverty, they included shelter, food, education,
health and clothing and thus were multidimensional view of poverty.
However after independence the focus on poverty was limited to
food calorie consumption. The food consumption was 2400 calorie
in rural area and 2100 calorie in urban area. However this calorie
based approach was abandoned by Tendulkar Committee recently.
However measuring poverty only by calorie consumption has its
flaws, since it does not take into account consumer preferences,
prices of other items and other issues. Further there is a debate
on the calorie requirement. Indeed with improvement in health
services calorie requirement has declined.
Indeed data show that calorie consumption of higher incomes has
declined even as calorie consumption of lower incomes has increased,
but not to extent required. Hence undernourishment has increased
from 60% to 90%, between 1972 to 2004, if one takes 2400 calories
as minimum required norm.
Perhaps the calorie requirement of 2400 calories is an outdated
premise. Indeed even washing hand before taking food reduces calorie
requirement by as much as 25%. If one takes NSS data, 1982 92
percent said that they get 2 square meals a day, but now in 2004,
NSS data says that more than 99 percent get 2 square meals a day.
So according to self perception poverty has declined.
For instance FAO has been reducing calorie norms to 1800 calories
taking into account improvement in other living standards. Hence
the 2400 calorie norm is wrong and outdated.
However some Indian economists estimate that calorie requirement
as a little above of 2000 calories instead of earlier of 2400
calories and by that token level of undernourishment is lesser.
One cannot continue with the old calorie norm of 2400 calories.
There is need to downward revision of calorie requirement by 300
calories.
But the fact that there is undernourishment despite downward
revision of calorie requirement, points to policy inadequacy.
Furthermore one needs to question the comparability of NSS data
across different years. Earlier in 1970s substantial amount of
payment was in kind, whereas, now substantial amount of payment
is in cash. Hence, a comparison of poverty through NSS data between
different times is flawed.
Challenges
1. Consumer Education is a challenge on how to achieve food security
with limited budget.
2. Consumer expenditure on non food items has been increasing.
3. Availability of food is also is challenge.
Central Government
Actions taken by Government
1. Green Revolution to increase food production.
2. Public Distribution System
3. Integrated Child Development Scheme.
4. Mid day meal scheme.
Advocacy to Government
1. Study alternative to PDS, such as food stamps, with academic
rigour.
2. Improve food storage and curb food wastage.
3. Reduce restrictions on food grain movement.
Statistics
Sector Rural Urban
Year 1983 2004-05 1983 2004-05
Incidence of Poverty (%) 45.61 28.3 42.15 25.7
Average per capita calorie intake (kcal) 2221 2047 2089 2020
Incidence of calorie deficiency (%) 68.75 85.05 60.82 64.77
Estimates of Calorie Intake in rural and urban India.
Decile Rural India Urban India
group 1972/73 1983 1993/94 1999/2000 2004/05 Change (%)** 1972/73
1983 1993/94 1999/2000 2004/05 Change (%)**
0-10 1192.09 1356.31 1460.12 1491.48 1480.52 24.2 1298.7 1331.76
1443.5 1520.88 1510.5 16.31
^10-20 1591.9 1681.8 1731.32 1730.52 1681.42 5.62 1575.94 1588.29
1702.4 1731.16 1687.67 7.09
20-30 1783.4 1847.86 1850 1865.3 1800 0.93 1745.94 1724 1803.48
1912.56 1833 4.99
30-40 1944 1952 1971.66 1955.22 1882.45 -3.17 1802.18 1861.19
1896.79 1970.46 1856.41 3.01
40-50 2115.04 2111.53 2056.48 2049.15 1958.95 -7.38 1980 1912.41
1992.81 2092.92 1944.62 -1.79
50-60 2210 2229.56 2156.34 2170.62 2044.32 -7.5 2035.48 2046 2074.64
2188.1 2024 -0.56
60-70 2451.41 2322 2275.17 2287.78 2158 -11.97 2266 2221.13 2186
2298.7 2111.12 -6.83
70-80 2581.4 2506.92 2410 2403 2290 -11.29 2382.13 2294.2 2296.74
2467.69 2209 -7.27
80-90 2929 2779.53 2584.72 2582.54 2376.4 -18.87 2658.75 2500.71
2470.5 2536 2343.04 -11.87
90-100 3861.77 3422.49 3034.19 2954.39 2797.94 -27.55 3324.88
3410.3 2843.14 2841.53 2680.64 -19.38
All 2266 2221 2153 2149 2047 -9.66 2107 2089 2071 2156 2020 -4.1
% of households
Getting enough food everyday
throughout the year not getting enough food everyday
Some months of the year All months of the year Not recorded All
Rural All-India
NSS 61st round
(July 2004-June 2005) 97.4 2 0.4 0.2 100
NSS 55th round
(July 1999-June 2000) 96.2 2.6 0.7 0.5 100
NSS 50th round
(July 1993-June 1994) 94.5 4.2 0.9 0.4 100
NSS 38th round
(Jan – Dec 1983) 81.1 16.2 2.4 0.3 100
Urban All-India
NSS 61st round
(July 2004-June 2005) 99.4 0.4 0.1 0.1 100
NSS 55th round
(July 1999-June 2000) 98.6 0.6 0.3 0.4 100
NSS 50th round
(July 1993-June 1994) 98.1 1.1 0.5 0.3 100
NSS 38th round
(Jan – Dec 1983) 93.3 5.6 0.8 0.3 100
Per capita per diem intake in Rural Sector
Calorie (Kcal) Protein (gm) Fat (gm)
27th
round 38th
round 50th
round 55th
round 61th
round 27th
round 38th
round 50th
round 55th
round 61th
round 27th
round 38th
round 50th
round 55th
round 61th
round
(1972-
1973) -1983 (1993-
1994) (1999-
2000) (2004-
2005) (1972-
1973) -1983 (1993-
1994) (1999-
2000) (2004-
2005) (1972-
1973) -1983 (1993-
1994) (1999-
2000) (2004-
2005)
Andhra Pradesh 2103 2204 2052 2021 1995 53 56 50.8 49.4 49.8 21
24 27.2 29.5 33.5
Assam 2074 2056 1983 1915 2067 53 52 49.5 47.7 52.7 15 18 21 22.3
26.7
Bihar 2225 2189 2115 2121 2049 65 65 60.2 58.7 57.8 17 20 23 26.5
28.4
Gujarat 2142 2113 1994 1986 1923 58 59 55.6 54.2 53.3 40 44 47.4
53.8 50.9
Haryana 3215 2554 2491 2455 2226 90 78 78.4 75.3 69.6 47 47 53.6
59.1 55.4
Karnataka 2202 2260 2073 2028 1845 57 60 55.1 54.2 48.8 23 26
28.6 36.6 33.9
Kerala 1559 1884 1965 1982 2014 38 47 50.8 52.4 55.4 19 32 32.7
38.8 40.8
Madhya Pradesh 2423 2323 2164 2062 1929 68 68 63 58.2 58.8 21
25 28.3 31.3 35.1
Maharashtra 1895 2144 1939 2012 1933 54 62 54.8 56.5 55.7 24 30
33.5 39.7 41.5
Orissa 1995 2103 2199 2119 2023 49 51 52.7 49.9 48.3 8 13 14.8
16.3 17.8
Punjab 3493 2677 2418 2381 2240 85 79 74.7 71.7 66.7 50 52 59.8
58.7 58.7
Rajasthan 2730 2433 2470 2425 2180 84 75 79.4 76.9 69.6 46 42
52.8 53.5 50.9
Tamil Nadu 1955 1861 1884 1826 1842 49 47 46.8 44.9 44.9 18 22
24.7 29.5 29.6
Uttar Pradesh 2575 2399 2307 2327 2200 76 73 70.4 69.7 65.9 28
29 35.5 37.6 37.5
West Bengal 1921 2027 2211 2095 2070 50 52 54.8 51.6 52 13 17
21.4 24.2 26.5
All India 2266 2221 2153 2149 2047 62 62 60.2 59.1 57 24 27 31.4
36.1 35.5
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