The government will spend ₹11.8 lakh crore to provide 5 kg of free foodgrains every month to an estimated 810 million people covered under the National Food Security Act. It is arguably the largest such intervention programme in the world.

Nothing exemplifies the existence of ‘two Indias’ than the fact that headlines on the free food scheme competed with headlines about India sending missions to the moon, our capital markets becoming the world’s seventh-largest, and another year of record economic growth.

Even as India speeds towards its target of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025-26, free rations are still required for more than half the population.

But despite running the world’s largest free foodgrains programme, having the world’s largest public distribution system delivering subsidised grains, pulses and essentials to the poor, and running the world’s largest food intervention programme aimed at children–the mid-day meal scheme–India is a long way off from achieving a nutritious diet for its masses.

While PMGKAY has been a resounding success, another ambitious programme has failed to meet its objectives. The Poshan Abhiyan scheme (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition), launched in 2018 as a multi-ministry convergence programme with the goal of eradicating malnutrition in India by 2022, has missed its goal by a good margin.

According to the UN’s report on ‘Monitoring the health SDG goal’ published in 2022, prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years was 30.9% in India (2020 figures), and of wasting in children was 19.3%. Also, 53% of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) were found to be anaemic.

According to the National Family Health Survey, while a substantial majority of the population no longer goes hungry thanks to free or subsidised rations, a balanced and nutritious diet is still a long way off. 

Only 48.8% of adult men and women consume milk or curd daily, while 5.8% of men and 3.7% of women had never consumed either. Milk and curd are a significant source of protein for the Indian population, particularly vegetarians.

Less than 50% of adult men and women consume pulses or beans daily while fruits form part of the daily diet for a little over 12% of the population. Only 6-8% of the population consumes eggs, fish, chicken or meat daily. 

A recently released ‘Global Hunger Index’ prepared by two European nonprofits ranked India 111 out of 128 countries on the index. 

While the findings were dismissed outright by the government, it is to be noted that the index looked at four factors for its calculations: undernourishment, child stunting (share of children who have low height for their age); child mortality (under 5 years of age); and child wasting. 

These are indicators of under or malnourishment rather than outright hunger, and need to be viewed as such. The government’s own numbers, as revealed by the National Family Health Survey, point out that India has a nutrition problem more than a hunger problem. 

This is why policy focus has to shift from alleviating hunger–which schemes like PMGKAY address–to addressing the problem of deficient nutrition or malnutrition.

Rather than blowing the budget on free foodgrains, which address the calorific need but not quite the nutritional needs, the government should focus more on balancing the diet better and ensuring access to a better quality of intake, including higher protein consumption, particularly among children and women.  

This will have positive outcomes in other fields as well. Healthier foods lead to better learning outcomes in children, which in turn leads to opportunities for better quality of work and enhanced productivity. 

It is not just about allocating more funds for nutrition programmes. Awareness among even healthcare practitioners is low since our health education system focuses more on curative rather than preventive approaches. Nutrition has to form a key part of the curriculum, as better awareness will also help drive better dietary habits.