Nutritional Security of Marginalised Groups in the Context of COVID-19: A Discourse

Context

The Global Hunger Index 2022 ranked India at 107 out of 121 nations and it fared only better than Afghanistan at 109 whereas its neighboring countries improved better viz. Pakistan at 99, Nepal at 81, Bangladesh at 84 and Sri Lanka 64.It has been found that from 2016-20, 17.3% of children in India are wasted while 34.7% of children under five are stunted and from 2019 data, it suggests that 3.4% of children die before turning five years old. The report identified conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 as the reasons for any progress that has been made against hunger in recent years. Particularly covid-19 pandemic, which has shaken the world throughout for two years i.e., 2020 and 2021, has made us to learn how vulnerable we are to global disruption and the associated health and economic concerns (Chatterjee et. al.,2021).

On a national scale, high prevalence of poverty and inequality in access to nutritious food are found among particular communities in rural and urban areas, poverty and malnutrition rates are high and urban areas are among the new epicenters of poverty and hunger. While food production and the market are vital dimensions vastly debated in literature, there is mere understanding on how food reaches the plate and is scantier in terms of various pathways, negotiations, choices and cultures influencing who eats what and why. The constraints, states and institutions role aspects, economic access to food, employment, access to land, prices of food grains and food distribution and inadequate availability of food grains will have little relevance if people do not possess purchasing power to procure them for their consumption. Though there are several studies available at global, macro and meso levels, literature is scanty at household level in-depth analysis on marginalized groups.