Abstract
This paper highlights the significant measurement issues in the computation of the prevalence of inadequate calorie intakes in India using NSS data. It focuses on the setting of appropriate norms or cut-offs which determine adequacy or inadequacy, as well as the measurement of intakes. Although energy norms for an individual are biologically determined their use as a policy tool necessitates several additional considerations that have not received sufficient attention in the literature. We demonstrate that changes in assumptions regarding age-sex distribution, average heights of adults, and physical activity status can lead to substantial changes in norms. Also important is the way food intakes are measured: changes in food habits that may lead to greater underreporting as the recall period increases, and the increasing trend, even though small, of eating meals outside the home, can exert a significant influence on the trends in the POU over time. With more realistic assumptions, the prevalence of inadequate energy intakes are quite reasonable in magnitude, although still high in absolute terms. The paper also suggests that by accounting for outliers, there is a correlation between anthropometric indicators for adults and food intakes.
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In computing the age distributions, the number of people whose age is not stated has not been taken into account. The age-sex distribution figures are compiled using Table C13 of the Indian Census 2011 data available at http:// www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/Age_level_data/Age_level_data.html.
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For example, for women aged 18–30, the calorie requirements are given by (14.0 * Body Weight in kg + 471)*PAL, and for males aged 18–30, the formulas (14.5*Body Weight in kg + 645)*PAL, where PAL takes value 1.53 for sedentary work and 1.8 for moderate work. These refer to non-pregnant non-lactating women only. To the extent that some women in 15–49 age group would be pregnant and therefore require more calories, the average norms would be marginally higher, but declining over time as the total fertility rate falls. Although this aspect is not captured here, note that a birth rate of 22 would translate into higher norms for at most 5–6% of the population.
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A more recent survey in 2004–5 conducted by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau in the rural areas of the same states finds a median height of 1.63 m (median weight 54.2 kg) for men and 1.52 m (median weight of 46.9 kg) for women. These figures lie between the NNMB and NFHS range discussed in the text.
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Unfortunately, a comparison of the two sets of consumer equivalence units is not possible, as the NNMB units embed assumptions regarding activity levels as well: separate values are assigned to adults engaging in sedentary, moderate and heavy work. While the maximum consumer unit under the NSS is unity, that under the NNMB can go as high as 1.8.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Nitya Mittal for research assistance and to K.L. Krishna and K. Sundaram for helpful comments. The first author is also grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation resident scholars’ grant, during the course of which this paper was first conceptualized. The usual disclaimer applies.
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Meenakshi, J.V., Viswanathan, B. (2017). Estimation of Calorie Norms and Measurement of Food Intakes: Some Implications for the Magnitudes of the Prevalence of Undernutrition in India. In: Krishna, K., Pandit, V., Sundaram, K., Dua, P. (eds) Perspectives on Economic Development and Policy in India. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3150-2_7
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