- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN a shocking revelation, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has shown that while 307 crore people across the world could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, India is home to almost a third of this struggling population.
To be more precise, 97 crore (0.97 billion) Indians or about 71 per cent of the country’s total population are not able to afford nutritious food. In case of Asia overall, it is 43.5 per cent and for Africa, 80 per cent.
The FAO report, titled ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022: Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable’, was released on Wednesday (6).
“Food price inflation due to the economic impacts of the pandemic have left 112 million more people unable to afford a healthy diet — this means a total of 3.1 billion people worldwide,” FAO director-general Qu Dongyu said while releasing the report.
A billion is equal to 100 crores.
The UN body’s report defines healthy diets as those based on a variety of minimally processed food with a balance across food groups, including whole grains, nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables and moderate animal protein.
The FAO also said that it takes an estimated $2.97 (£2.48) per person per day (in 2020) in India to afford a healthy diet. In terms of purchasing power parity, affording such food in a four-member household would take Rs 7,600 (£80) a month.
Purchasing power parity is the metric used to compare different currencies by considering how much a basket of goods cost in different countries.
While more than 70 per cent of Indians were unable to afford a healthy diet, the corresponding numbers were lower in China (12 per cent), Brazil (19 per cent), and Sri Lanka (49 per cent).
Nepal (84 per cent) and Pakistan (83.5 per cent) did worse than India. Another neighbour Bangladesh has 73.5 per cent of its people who cannot afford a nutritious diet.
About 80 crore Indians, or close to 60 per cent the population, depend on subsidised food rations provided by the country’s government.
The beneficiaries receive five kilograms of cereals per person per month at just Rs 2-3 (£0.02-£0.03) per kg, besides a special pandemic assistance of a free five kilogram of grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana scheme. However, the Indian food subsidy programme is often criticised as heavy in calories but low in nutrition.
