Govt claims of falling poverty false, says economist Utsa Patnaik

80% rural India’s calorie intake low, Govt claims of falling poverty false, says economist Utsa Patnaik India’s rural population has for long faced a decline in food and nutrition intake since the advent of neo-liberal policies in the early 1990s, says economist Utsa Patnaik, pointing out that at least 80 percent of rural Indians are having less than 2,200 calories per day.“It (data) was downloaded by some people before it was completely withdrawn. The nutritional intake data are not there. But from whatever there is, through using certain approximations, I estimate that more than 80 percent of the rural population have slipped below 2,200 calories per day intake,” said Patnaik at the Second P Sundarayya Memorial Lecture on the topic ‘Agrarian Distress, Worker-Peasant Alliance and Resistance to Corporate and Imperialist Designs in India’ at HKS Surjeet Bhawan in New Delhi Wednesday. [Read more]( If you would prefer not receiving our emails, please [Click Here](