International Institute for Population Sciences
Deemed to be University (An Autonomous Organization of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India)

In spite of the remarkable economic growth and poverty reduction in India, the country has not witnessed a commensurate improvement in its food nutrition and hunger indicators. The problem of food and nutrition insecurity in India is more pronounced when viewed from a regional perspective. This study constructs a State Hunger Index (SHI) for India based on the National Family Health Survey data of the latest three rounds and analyses its variation in relation to accessibility, availability, and absorption of food. SHI has been calculated by following the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) methodology. To investigate the variation of SHI across states of India, we have applied a pooled regression model. Our analysis reveals that the majority of the Indian states had either ‘alarming’ or ‘extremely alarming’ levels of hunger in 2005-06. Even in 2015-16, only Kerala had a ‘moderate’ level of hunger and all other states had ‘alarming’ or ‘serious’ levels of hunger. Most states improved their hunger situation in 2019-20 compared to their situation in 2015-16. Hunger is predominantly concentrated in BIMARU states namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. Among these states, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh account for one-third of the total hungry population in India. Policies to provide safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, and public distribution system for food grains have had a significant positive impact on reducing hunger in India. The study underscores that policies and programs should be devised with a regional perspective to address the challenges of hunger in India and overcome the wide variation in hunger across regions of India. Keywords: State hunger index, India, Food and nutrition security, Regional disparities