Nature of Food Problem in India Beforeand After Independence
A RECENT publication, Food Insecurity Atlas of Urban India, brought out by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) indicates that more than 38 per cent of children under the age of three in India's cities and towns are underweight and more than 35 per cent of children in urban areas are stunted (shorter than they should be for their age). The report states that the poor in India's burgeoning urban areas do not get the requisite amount of calories or nutrients specified by accepted Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) norms and also suggests that absorption and assimilation of food by the urban poor is further impaired by non-food factors such as inadequate sanitation facilities, insufficient housing and woeful access to clean drinking water. More than 21 per cent of India's urban population live in slums, 23 per cent of urban households do not have access to toilet facilities and nearly 8 per cent of urban households are unable to find safe drinking water.
This publication is the second in a three-part series. The Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India was released in 2001 and the Sustainability of Food Security Atlas of India is forthcoming. The Food Insecurity Atlas of Urban India provides comprehensive analysis on the extent of food insecurity in India'scities and towns and uses a series of maps to identify food insecurity "hotspots" in the country. The urban Atlas uses existing data to analyse food security problems andthe main data sources are the Census of India and National Sample Surveys (NSS). Data have also been taken from National Family Health Surveys, Pollution Control Boards, the Health Information of India compiled by the Ministry of Health, and the Environmental Compendium. The study excludes the north-eastern States of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Sikkim since NSS statistics for these areas are found to be unreliable.
Providing food security to the urban
This publication is the second in a three-part series. The Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India was released in 2001 and the Sustainability of Food Security Atlas of India is forthcoming. The Food Insecurity Atlas of Urban India provides comprehensive analysis on the extent of food insecurity in India'scities and towns and uses a series of maps to identify food insecurity "hotspots" in the country. The urban Atlas uses existing data to analyse food security problems andthe main data sources are the Census of India and National Sample Surveys (NSS). Data have also been taken from National Family Health Surveys, Pollution Control Boards, the Health Information of India compiled by the Ministry of Health, and the Environmental Compendium. The study excludes the north-eastern States of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Sikkim since NSS statistics for these areas are found to be unreliable.
Providing food security to the urban