Money is increasing but food plate is becoming empty in Indian States!! At least latest trends of food consumption patterns are scathing new pictures of Chronic Hunger in one of the biggest state of Madhya Pradesh. Many reports are now unanimous that the number of people afflicted with hunger is increasing rapidly. Development process is moving so fast, that the common person is left behind as if they don't exist. Development, social inclusion and elimination of poverty has emerged as new targets in the political battle field now, but all these jargons still lack in perspective. And in this context latest NSSO report released by Government of India on consumption patterns in India (which includes consumption on food and other essentials for life) shows a decline in level of food consumptions. Various analyses have shown that these findings are actually revealing the actual face of poverty elimination programs and that of the concept of development without protecting agriculture.

No more Food gain in food plate

Overall, the level of food consumption in rural areas of our country (India) is declining. In 2005¬06, an average of 11.920 KGs food grain was consumed per month by a member of the family and to acquire this, the family had to spend Rs. 106.30 (Calculate Rs.49=$1) per month. But in 2006¬07, the average food consumption came down to 11.685 KGs per person (1.97% decline) in the family, and their cost to acquire it had risen to Rs.114.80 at this consumption level.

The changing consumption pattern in Madhya Pradesh in itself points towards a deep crisis of food security in the state. On an average, a person in rural Madhya Pradesh was consuming 11.48 kgs food or grain per month in 2005¬06 and was spending Rs.
86.46 to acquire this amount of food, but per person food consumption has declined to the level of 9.718 kgs per month and sees a negative change of 15.34% in the 60.3 Million population state and expenditure level is almost the same i.e. Rs. 87.27. It clearly shows the impact of inflation on changing food consumption levels.

Moving to food and other consumption analyses, rural Kerala spends a total amount of Rs 505.52 and Punjab Rs. 511.25 on food group (cereal, milk, meat, dry fruit, vegetables etc.), whereas in Madhya Pradesh this expenditure is 263.86. It simply means that 80.5% of their total expenditure is being spent for food arrangements.

Who eats what?

Data speak for themselves. Interestingly, Kerala people spend Rs. 83.69 on egg, fish and meat while Madhya Pradesh individual spends only Rs. 7.44 per month on these items. Punjab definitely spends less on food grain (Rs. 91.86.00) but the total expenditure on food group is Rs. 511.25 per person per month and they consume milk and milk products worth Rs 167.24 (32.71% of total food expenditure), while, an individual from Madhya Pradesh spends only Rs. 44.75 per month on these.

Haryana and Himachal Pradesh spend biggest part (41.46 percent and 27.17 percent respectively) of their total food expenditure on Milk or Milk products. The difference in overall per capita expenditure is worth mentioning. The per capita average expenditure in Madhya Pradesh is one of the lowest in the country at Rs. 514.93 per month, whereas it is Rs 1250.35 in Kerala, Rs. 1198.93 in Punjab and Rs. 1117.49 in Himachal Pradesh – more then double in any case. It goes without saying that higher expenditure is directly linked with livelihood and subsistence security, and unfortunately, it is again lacking in Madhya Pradesh.

As per the NSSO data released in October 2008, Madhya Pradesh [9.72] is third lowest in terms of monthly per capita cereal consumption [kg.] preceding Kerala [9.37] and Punjab [9.63]. This does not mean that progressive and rich states like Kerala and Punjab are the worst performer then Madhya Pradesh. Punjab (Rs 511), in India, is on top on food expenditure list followed by Kerala (Rs. 506) and Madhya Pradesh spends the lowest amount (Rs. 263) on Food per person. On the other hand Kerala, being a coastal state, has fish and fruits in their food plate and Punjab consumes Milk and milk products in large quantity, with the result that their cereal consumption is lower than Madhya Pradesh which is not a coastal state or a non¬veg consumer. Moreover, Kerala and Punjab are considered as affluent and developed states, and studies have shown that affluence also brings changes in food consumption pattern, packaged food becoming main chunk of food plates, especially in Punjab and metro states. Since Madhya Pradesh does not have such high purchasing capacity required for consumption of non¬cereal food items, people have to depend mainly upon the cereals. It is also serious to note that food grain production in Madhya Pradesh has declined rapidly in last one decade. With this backdrop, low food grain consumption in Madhya Pradesh is a serious matter.

Estimation of poverty OR Preservative for Chronic Hunger

It can't be termed development if the largest section of the society is bound to spend 55 to 70 percent of their gross income just to arrange their daily requirement of food. The farce of poverty identification is a big challenge before the goal of elimination of chronic hunger. Actually, according to Planning Commission’s latest estimation, poverty in India is reducing. Looking to the ground level conditions, it seems that they have a mandate to make it possible and it is being achieved by putting people in statistical formulas. It is said that the URP¬Consumption distribution data of the 61 st Round yields a poverty ration of 28.3 percent in the rural areas, 25.7% in the urban areas and 27.5% for the country as a whole in 2004¬05. In Madhya Pradesh, a population of 249.68 lac (38.3%) is bound to go to bed Hungry, as they are poor and marginalized. The Poverty line (implicit) at all¬India level is worked out from the expenditure class–wise distribution of persons (based on URP consumption, that is, consumption data collected from 30¬days recall period for all items) and the poverty ratio at all¬India level. Actually during the poverty estimation, on the one hand, locally available items from forest or agriculture retained for consumption by farmers or Tribals are also valued at prevailing prices, and added to expenditure on non¬food items to give the total monthly per capita expenditure. While, on the other hand, the cost of items and services (dwellings or Health or Education) are counted at the lowest price without considering the present state of inflation.

In fact, the people at large should have enough income or they should have rights over natural resources. Both these factors have been neglected by the government of Madhya Pradesh and what ever has been done, the performance is very poor.. There have been no land reforms in Madhya Pradesh since long, while land reforms are vital for an agrarian society. It is a known fact that land reforms in Kerala have changed the life of the people considerably. In fact southern states have been progressive in providing social security to the marginalized sections with their positive political will. One should know that olds age destitute can go to school and get mid day meal with dignity in Tamilnadu. These are the welfare schemes which are not just meant for getting election mileage.

The Planning Commission estimates that in Madhya Pradesh, a family spending Rs 327.78 per person per month in rural settlement will be considered as poor. In Urban settlement, the expenditure level is Rs 570.15 per person per month. In other words, it means, a person spending anything more then Rs 9 every day in a village or Rs 19 in any kind of urban area, will not be considered as poor and will be out of poverty elimination programs. At all¬India level, the poverty line represents the expenditure level of Rs. 356.30 in rural areas and Rs. 538.60 in urban area per person per month. No person can survive at this level of expenditure at all. This is basically a Starvation Line, rather then Poverty line. The recent NSS 63 rdround survey clearly shows that the biggest part of the total expenditure goes for food arrangements and other aspects, like health, education and entertainment, have been given no value in poverty definition.

Now it may not be a coincidence that Madhya Pradesh has the lowest and continuously declining food consumption, with highest malnutrition, highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy of 57.7 years, much lower then Kerala’s 73.9 Years. It is just not merely an issue relating to non¬availability of institutional health services, these conditions shows the insecurity and invisibility of poverty within the State frame¬work and it’s efforts too. It also reflects that avoidance of fundamental issues of exclusion, neglect of community knowledge, threat to agriculture, unlimited exploitation of natural resources for revenue generation and colonial style of addressing development, has pushed the larger society on margins and a fewer ones have become the center in the politics of development.

As far as policies are concerned, there seems only a dark tunnel with assurance of no light even at its tail end! The State has failed in introducing any such policy to reduce the structural imbalances in agriculture and improve purchasing power of the people through sustained means of livelihood. This is nothing but a structural imbalance where you have more population (67%) contributing less (18%) in a gross domestic product. Where are the efforts to reduce this phenomenon? It may be an appropriate analysis that in present development sphere, human and natural resources are considered essential for development, but the concept of exclusion and capability deprivation has been put aside in policy spheres. That is why no change is discerned in the situation and the cycle of poverty moves on. We may expect some qualitative changes after the genuine implementation of Forest Rights Act, meant to hand over the rights on the resources to around 4 lac tribal and other forest dwelling families.

Sachin Kumar Jain