Tracking transition in calorie-intake among Indian households: Insights and policy implications

The long-run trend in calorie-intake among rural and urban households in India has shown a decline till the year 2009–10 which got reversed during 2011–12. The reversal in the trend in calorie-intake has several important implications for dietary transition and nutritional interventions. The improvement in nourishment during 2011–12 is accompanied by a decline in inequality in calorie-intake. Among the economic forces, squeezed food budget has been the major factor responsible for the decline in dietary energy intake during 1993–94 to 2004–05, while the sufficiently large increase in income along with improved PDS after 2004–05 has triggered the upward trend in energy intake during the recent years. The paper has indicated that effect of subsidies spent on in-kind PDS transfer on calorie-intake is 3.5–3.9 times the effect of direct cash transfer of food subsidy. Therefore, the study has underlined the strengthening of PDS functioning or conditional cash transfers for improved nutritional status of Indian households.