Year: 2014 | Month: December | Volume 1 | Number 1
Economic Scenario of Poverty, Hunger and Malnutrition in India
Sudhakar Dwivedi and Pawan Kumar Sharma
DOI:Coming Soon
Abstract:
India is the second most populous country in the world with an estimated 1.2 billion people and the third largest economy by GDP. India was classified as a (lower) middle-income country by the World Bank in 2012. Hunger, malnutrition, hidden hunger and poverty all are related to each other. Poverty is considered to be the main cause of malnutrition and hunger, however rich people still found to be malnourished. In developing countries like India, children and adults are vulnerable to malnutrition because of low dietary intakes, infectious diseases, lack of appropriate care and inequitable distribution of food within the household. Three standard indices of physical growth that describe the nutritional status of children are Height-for-age (stunting), Weight-for-height (wasting), and Weight-for-age (underweight). The incidence of poverty declined from 45.3% in 1993-94 to 37.2% in 2004-05 and further to 21.9% in 2011-12. The percentage of persons below the Poverty Line in 2011-12 has been estimated as 25.7% in rural areas, 13.7% in urban areas and 21.9% for the country as a whole. The respective ratios for the rural and urban areas were 41.8% and 25.7% and 37.2% for the country as a whole in 2004-05. It was 50.1% in rural areas, 31.8% in urban areas and 45.3% for the country as a whole in 1993-94. In 2011-12, India had 270 million persons below the Tendulkar Poverty Line as compared to 407 million in 2004-05, that is a reduction of 137 million persons over the seven year period.
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