99 Pct Rural Indians Now Have Two Meals A Day

Bangalore: Indians are now taking two meals a day than they were able to do over 16 years ago, says a survey by National Sample Survey Organisation.

The report ‘Perceived adequacy of food consumption in Indian households’ said that the all-India percentage of households getting two meals every day throughout the year has progressively increased over the last 16 years from 94.5 percent to about 99 percent in rural India and from about 98 percent to 99.6 percent in urban India.

Further, it was seen that the proportion of rural households reporting not getting two meals every day in any month of the year fell from 0.9 percent to 0.2 percent in rural India between 1993-94 and 2009-10. The figures for urban households dropped from 0.5 percent to 0.0 percent.

The report highlighted that perceived food inadequacy was most common in the months of January and February for West Bengal and Odisha, February and March for Assam, and March for Chhattisgarh. The number of scarcity months was 2 among households reporting food inadequacy in ‘some months’ of the year. It was followed by 3, while more than 4 months of food scarcity were reported by very few households.

Among rural households in states, Assam (1.2 percent), Bihar (1.1 percent), Chhattisgarh (1 percent) reported not getting adequate food every day in some months. However, 0.8 percent of rural households in Bihar and 0.6 percent in West Bengal reported not getting enough food every day in any month of the year.

Also Read: More than 20 Pct of Indians Malnourished