More than half the households among the poorest five per cent of the rural population had calorie intake below 2,160 Kcal per day, the Lok Sabha was told on Friday.
“Among the bottom 5 per cent of rural population ranked by Monthly per Capita Expenditure (MPCE), 57 per cent of households had calorie intake below 2,160 Kcal/consumer unit/day which was only 2 per cent for the top 5 per cent wealth fractile of the population,” Health Minister J.P. Nadda said in a written reply.
He was citing observations of the report of nutritional intake in India 2011-12 published under 68th round of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
He said that average protein intake per capita per day was seen to rise steadily with MPCE level in rural India from 43gm for the bottom 5 per cent of population to 91gm for the top 5 per cent and in urban India from 44gm for the bottom 5 per cent to about 87gm for the top 5 per cent.
Mr. Nadda said the per capita fat intake was about 100gm in the top fractile class of the urban sector and about 27gm in the lowest fractile class.
In the rural sector, it was 92gm for the top fractile class while that of bottom class was 21gm.
“Average dietary energy intake per person per day was 2,233 Kcal for rural India and 2,206 Kcal for urban India. At the all-India level, protein intake per person per day was 60.7gm in the rural sector and 60.3gm in the urban.”
“Average fat intake for the country as a whole was about 46gm per person per day in the rural sector and 58gm in the urban sector,” Mr. Nadda said.
Noting that the government has accorded “high priority” to malnutrition, the Minister said it is undertaking a multi-sectoral approach for accelerated action on the determinants of malnutrition in targeting nutrition in schemes and programmes of all the sectors.
He said under the National Health Mission, the remedial steps taken include promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices, management of malnutrition and common neonatal and childhood illnesses at community and facility level among others.
