Journal of Indian School of Political Economy

M. H. Suryanarayana ¹

Affiliations
1 Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Gen. A.K. Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (East), Bombay-400065, IN

Abstract

This paper examines some of the issues regarding food security and their implications for the PDS reform at the state-level from the perspective of changing consumer choices and preferences dictated largely by availability. Judged by conventional measures, there has been a substantial improvement in food security across states in India. However, actual levels of cereal consumption, an important indicator of food security in a poor developing country, have declined in the majority of the states under changing institutional and production conditions. Thus, the task for the 'Human Face' of the reform programme is not, as conventionally posed, that of minimising the reductions likely to be caused by the economic reforms, rather it is one of stopping the ongoing decline and preventing a likely acceleration in the decline in cereal consumption and calorie intake. The solution for these issues seems to be a set of integrated, targeted and appropriately weighted policies across states.

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M. H. Suryanarayana ¹

Affiliations
1 Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Gen. Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (East), Bombay 400 065, IN

Abstract

The present papers takes stock of the recent methodological attempts to estimate poverty and examines the scope for further improvement. As an attempt in this direction, changes in real consumption basket and its methodological and policy implications are examined. Based on the National Sample Survey data, the paper examines the changes in aggregate consumer expenditure, cereal quantity consumption and consumption patterns with the possible appropriate fractile-group and commodity specific price adjustments. The results show that poverty increased till mid-sixties and declined thereafter as a result of a decline in real income/consumption and a recovery. Cereal consumption has been virtually stagnant since 1952. With limited increases in aggregate real consumption after mid-1970s, the poor have gone in for quality and variety in their consumption involving changes in consumption patterns in favour of superior cereals, and marginal increases in non-cereal food items, but still below the subsistence threshold in terms of calorie intake.

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