There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items squeezing their food-budget. — Elucidate.

Official poverty ratios have fallen steadily, yet hunger indicators refuse to improve in step — India ranked 105 of 127 in the Global Hunger Index 2024 (“serious” category), with NFHS-5 showing 19.3 per cent child wasting. The statement locates this divergence in the squeezed food budget of the poor.

How shrinking social expenditure squeezes food

• Where the state retreats from health, education, housing and transport, these become unavoidable private expenses; the poor must pay for them first, before food.
• Out-of-pocket spending still accounts for roughly half of India's total health expenditure — a single hospitalisation forces cuts in the food basket or fresh debt.
• Successive NSS consumption rounds showed declining calorie intake among the poor even as measured poverty fell — the “food budget squeeze” documented by economists such as Utsa Patnaik.
• The PDS protects cereals, but proteins, vegetables and milk — the drivers of dietary quality — must be bought at market prices amid recurring food inflation, so hidden hunger persists (anaemia in 57 per cent of women).
• Casual, migratory work adds rent, fuel and commuting costs that compete directly with the thali.

Reversing the divergence requires restoring social expenditure, not just transferring grain: a diversified NFSA basket (pulses, millets, fortified staples), Ayushman Bharat to cap catastrophic health shocks, and PM-POSHAN — so that income poverty and nutritional poverty finally decline together.