Combating Hunger : India’s Achievements 

Context: The United Nations’ newly released The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 reports that 673 million people (8.2% of the world’s population) were undernourished in 2024. India has played a decisive role in this global progress according to some experts.

UPSC Relevance and PYQ :

GS2 – Issues relating to Poverty and Hunger

2018

How far do you agree with the view that the focus on lack or availability of food as the main cause of hunger takes the attention away from ineffective human development policies in India?

GS 3 – Public Distribution System – Objectives, Functioning, Limitations, Revamping; Issues of Buffer Stocks and Food Security

2021

What are the salient features of the National Food Security Act, 2013? How has the Food Security Bill helped in eliminating hunger and malnutrition in India?

2022

What are the major challenges of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India? How can it be made effective and transparent ?

What is hunger? (as per World Food Programme )

Hunger is discomfort or pain caused by a lack of food. It is different from food insecurity, which means lack of regular access to safe and nutritious food for proper development and an active and healthy life.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. 

Present Status of India

Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2024 – India was ranked 105th out of 127 countries with a score of 27.3, which is considered a “serious” level of hunger. While this is an improvement from its 2023 ranking of 111, it is still a low rank compared to its neighboring countries.

UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2025 Report 

• The prevalence of undernourishment in India declined to 12% in 2022-24 from 21% in 2004-06. However, India still has the highest absolute number of undernourished people in the world.
  • India ranks 48th globally and 7th highest in Asia for undernourishment.
• Malnutrition:  While hunger has been reduced, India faces a “double burden” of malnutrition.
  • Child Wasting (acute undernutrition): India has the highest child wasting rate in the world at 18.7%.
  • Child Stunting(chronic undernutrition): The rate of stunting has improved but remains high. The SOFI 2025 report indicates that 37.4 million children under five are stunted.
• Anaemia: Over 53.7% of women aged 15-49 in India suffer from anemia, placing the country fourth globally in anemia prevalence.
• Obesity: Alongside undernutrition, overnutrition is a growing concern. The number of overweight children and obese adults has been rising, highlighting a “nutritional paradox” where hunger and obesity coexist.
• Diet Affordability: Report notes that a healthy diet remains unaffordable for over 60% of the Indian population, primarily due to the high prices of nutrient-dense foods like pulses, fruits, and vegetables.

Note : The SOFI report is released jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) to  monitor progress on SDG 2 targets.

National Sample Survey data on household consumption

• Also shows that the prevalence of undernourishment in India declined from 14.3% in 2020-22 to 12% in 2022-24.
• In absolute terms, this means 30 million fewer people living with hunger- an impressive achievement considering the scale of the population and the depth of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What has helped India to combat Hunger and Malnutrition?

The transformation of the PDS via Digitalisation – highlighted by author

• Aadhaar-enabled targeting
• real-time inventory tracking and biometric authentication. 
• The rollout of electronic point-of-sale systems 
• The One Nation One Ration Card platform has made entitlements portable across the country, which is particularly crucial for internal migrants and vulnerable households.
• These innovations allowed India to rapidly scale up food support during the pandemic and to continue to ensure access to subsidised staples for more than 800 million people.

Continued Social Security Support by Government 

• The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was launched with the specific purpose of ameliorating the hardships faced by the poor and needy due to economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country delivering free ration.
• The Central Government has decided to extend the PMGKAY for an additional 5 years, starting from January 1, 2024. This initiative will provide free food grains to approximately 81.35 crore beneficiaries.
• The National Food Security Act, 2013 legally entitles up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized food grains through the Targeted Public Distribution System. NFSA covers approximately 81 crore beneficiaries across India, including 16 crore women, reflecting its commitment to empowering women. This broad coverage encompasses both Priority Households (PHH) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) categories, ensuring subsidized food grains are accessible to a substantial portion of the population.

Focus on Inclusion 

• Schemes focusing on various vulnerable groups ranging from Tribals via PM JANMAN, to Street Vendors via PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) to marginalized artisans via PM Vishwakarma to farmers via PM KISAN. 
• These interventions are significant to reduce poverty, improve economic well being of vulnerable groups that is a prerequisite for ensuring food security, affordability and quality of diet and consumption.

Focus on nutrition

• India has begun investing in improving the quality of calories. For example, the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) school-feeding scheme, launched in 2021, and the Integrated Child Development Services are now focusing on dietary diversity and nutrition sensitivity, laying the foundation for long-term improvements in child development and public health.
• The POSHAN Tracker has been praised by SOFI Report as well.
• Focus on Biofortification – ICRA has developed 87 biofortified varieties of 16 different crops with improved nutrient content. Biofortified crops are integrated into various government programs like POSHAN Abhiyaan, aiming to improve nutritional outcomes. 
• Since the 2019-20 fiscal year through March 31, 2024, approximately 406 lakh metric tonnes of fortified rice have been distributed through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Checking Food Inflation

New data in the UN report also shows progress the country has made in making healthy diets more affordable despite food inflation via various interventions like:

• Reduced or zero import duties on pulses and vegetable oils ensures abundant supply of the same in the domestic market.
• The Government has utilized the Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) to manage price volatility in essential agri-horticultural commodities, ensuring that individuals,especially those from lower-income groups, do not face difficulties due to fluctuating prices.
• Bharat Dal was launched in July 2023, converting Chana stock into subsidized Chana dal priced at Rs.60 per kg for 1 kg packs and Rs.55 per kg for 30 kg packs. Additionally, Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice are available at subsidized rates of Rs.27.50 per kg and Rs.29 per kg, respectively, through NAFED, NCCF, and Kendriya Bhandar.
• Subsidy support on fertilisers
• Open Market operations– release of Buffer Stocks in market
• Ban on export of rice, wheat, onion, as and when required etc.

Investment in Infrastructure and agricultural marketing

• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) – A financing facility that provides medium-to-long-term debt for post-harvest management projects and community farming assets. It offers interest subvention and credit guarantees for loans to build infrastructure like warehouses, cold storage facilities, and processing units, which helps reduce food wastage.
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) – A comprehensive scheme to create modern infrastructure for food processing. It includes sub-schemes for Mega Food Parks and Integrated Cold Chains, aiming to establish a seamless supply chain from the farm to the consumer.
• Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) Scheme – This program provides financial assistance for the construction and renovation of godowns and warehouses in rural areas. It helps farmers store their produce and sell it when market prices are more favorable.
• e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) – This is a pan-India electronic trading portal that networks existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets. It allows farmers to sell their produce to a wider range of buyers online, leading to better price discovery and greater transparency by reducing the role of intermediaries.
• Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) – It  aims to ensure farmers receive remunerative prices for their produce. It specifically focuses on pulses and oilseeds. Ensuring remuneration prices of these crops helps incentivise more productions of pulses and oilseeds.

Challenges Remain

• The cost of a healthy diet in India still remains unaffordable for over 60% of the population, driven by
  • high prices of nutrient-dense food
  • inadequate cold chains
  • inefficient market linkages. 
• As the Government aims for fiscal consolidation down the line, the Social sector spending and subsidy support to the agriculture sector may be reduced. It may threaten the gains made so far.
• The production of Oilseeds and Pulses still remains low despite the huge demand due to lack of Fork to Farm strategy for cropping i.e. deciding the cropping pattern based on market demand.
• Digital Gap and poor financial inclusion may prevent vulnerable and marginalized section from availing benefits of targeted social security programmes like NFSA.
• The government interventions while helping tame prices and affordability, may have adverse structural effects. For Example – MSP has distorted market prices and supplies many times and led to skewed cropping patterns dominated by wheat and rice. It often causes artificial inflation affecting affordability.
• A larger structural challenge remains as  even as hunger falls, malnutrition, obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies are rising. This is especially so among poor urban and rural populations.

Way Ahead –  given by Author

Transforming India’s agrifood system

• This means boosting the production and the affordability of nutrient-rich foods such as pulses, fruits, vegetables, and animal-source products, which are often out of reach for low-income families.
• It also means investing in post-harvest infrastructure such as cold storage and digital logistics systems, to reduce the estimated 13% of food lost between farm and market. These losses directly affect food availability and affordability.
• In addition, India should further strengthen support for women-led food enterprises and local cooperatives, including Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), especially those cultivating climate-resilient crops, as these can enhance both nutrition and livelihoods.
• India must continue to invest in its digital advantage and expand its reach to marginalized farmers to drive the transformation of its agrifood systems. Platforms such as AgriStack, e-NAM, and geospatial data tools can strengthen market access, improve agricultural planning, and enhance the delivery of nutrition-sensitive interventions.

Suggestions of SOFI Report 2025

Improve monetary–fiscal policy coordination

➔ Sound fiscal policies that complement credible monetary policies are crucial for stabilizing domestic markets, including agrifood markets.

➔ Effective public debt management and well-targeted government spending on nutritious food for all can bolster economic resilience while maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability.

➔ Central banks should uphold a credible, independent and transparent monetary policy stance to anchor inflation expectations and prevent major currency devaluations. A clear commitment to price stability strengthens investor confidence and mitigates financial volatility, also in agricultural markets.

Enhance structural and trade-related measures to address food price inflation

➔ While price policies can address high food prices in the short term, their effects are temporary; moreover, they often distort markets and are an inefficient solution to food price inflation.

➔ While export taxes can offer short-term relief by lowering domestic prices, they often come at a high cost – distorting global markets, straining importing countries, and ultimately hurting domestic producers through reduced competitiveness and investment.

➔ Governments should opt for a stable, coordinated and transparent approach against long-term food price increases. This approach should consider policy measures to reduce the likelihood of prolonged high food price episodes while supporting both producers and consumers by, for example: i) managing food reserve systems adequately; ii) enhancing market transparency; iii) improving food price monitoring systems and data collection; iv) investing in trade-related infrastructure; and v) reducing non-tariff barriers to trade.

Build resilience through data, information and investments

➔ Transparent and functioning agricultural market information systems (MIS) may help ensure price stability. Given the increasing complexity of global agrifood systems, investing in data collection and strengthening MIS is essential to mitigate food supply chain disruptions, prevent speculation-driven price hikes and support smallholder farmers in accessing fair and competitive markets.

➔ Reducing the probability of future food price inflation events requires sustained investment in improved infrastructure of agriculture, including research and development, trade routes, and storage to improve market access and resilience against shocks and disruptions, enhance productivity sustainably, and strengthen food supply chains.

A symbol of hope – India has helped reduce global hunger

• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) notes that the progress of India in agrifood system transformation is not just national imperatives; they are global contributions. 
• As a leader among developing countries, India is well-positioned to share its innovations in digital governance, social protection, and data-driven agriculture with others across the Global South.
•  India’s experience shows that reducing hunger is not only possible but that it can be scaled when backed by political will, smart investment, and inclusion.
• With just five years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) on ending hunger, India’s recent performance gives hope. But sustaining this momentum will require a shift from delivering sustenance to delivering nutrition, resilience, and opportunity.