The paper titled ‘Changes in India’s Food Consumption and Policy Implications: A Comprehensive Analysis of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 and 2011-12’ further said significant changes are unfolding in India’s food consumption pattern.
The paper is authored by Mudit Kapoor of the Indian Statistical Institute, Shamika Ravi, member of EAC-PM, Sankar Rajan, independent consultant, Gaurav Dhamija of IIT Hyderabad and Neha Sareen of Indian Statistical Institute.
According to the paper, the share of total household expenditure on food has declined substantially in rural and urban areas across all states and UTs.
“It is the first time in modern India (post-independence) that average household spending on food is less than half the overall monthly spending of households and is a marker of significant progress,” it said.
The paper is a comprehensive analysis of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 and comparison with 2011-12.“Overall, there has been a significant increase in households’ average monthly per capita expenditure across rural and urban India across all states and UTs,” the paper said, adding that the magnitude of the rise is substantial but varies across states and regions.“Further, growth for rural households was higher at 164% compared to 146% for urban households,” it said.
According to the paper, within food items, the share of expenditure on cereal has declined significantly across rural and urban areas.
However, it pointed out that this decline was more substantial for the bottom 20% of the households in rural and urban areas. “In all likelihood, this reflects the effectiveness of the government’s food security policies, which provide free foodgrains to large numbers of beneficiaries across all states of the country, with a particular focus on the vulnerable bottom 20% of households,” the report noted.