Stunting In India And Role Of Food Transfers

Stunting, the impaired growth and development of children from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation, remains a persistent challenge in India. The causes and consequences of stunting in India have been much debated.

In a provocative paper in 2013, Arvind Panagariya questioned the conventional narrative that attributed high child stunting rates in India primarily to inadequate nutrition. In response to Panagariya’s claims, Seema Jayachandran and Rohini Pande contested his arguments, emphasising that environmental and health-related factors, not genetics, are the primary drivers of stunting. Their response helped reaffirm the mainstream view that stunting is both preventable and consequential, and that it warrants concerted policy attention.

Food Transfers
If stunting in India has a lot to do with insufficient or poor nutrition, then carefully designed policies should help in attenuating the problem. In this regard, what role might food transfers play? New research sheds valuable light on this question. 

India’s National Food Security Act of 2013 marked one of the largest expansions of food transfer programmes globally, aiming to enhance food security and nutritional outcomes for over 500 million people. The research in question evaluates the impact of the NFSA on child nutrition, particularly stunting among children under five, by leveraging variation in program implementation across states and households.

Specifically, the study examines the role of the Public Distribution System, the world’s largest food subsidy programme, in delivering NFSA-induced improvements in nutrition. Using panel data from 30 villages across eight Indian states during 2010–2015, the researchers utilise a so-called “triple-difference strategy” that exploits state-level policy variations, household size, and ration card status. These dimensions created differing degrees of benefit from NFSA reforms, enabling the researchers to credibly identify the causal impact of the policy.

The central finding of the research is that the NFSA-led PDS expansion significantly reduced child stunting, particularly in children aged 0–2 years. This age group is widely recognised in public health as critical for interventions due to its long-term developmental implications. The researchers estimate that in the eight studied states—home to about 41% of India’s population—the NFSA prevented approximately 1.8 million cases of child stunting during the study period.

Shifting the focus slightly, the research finds that increased PDS transfers led to higher calorie and nutrient intakes, and improvements in dietary diversity. Although the PDS primarily subsidises staples like rice and wheat, the savings from these subsidised staples appear to have enabled households to purchase more nutrient-dense foods, particularly animal proteins like milk and meat. This dietary shift explains the reductions observed in stunting.

Interestingly, this research also finds that PDS transfers improved household wage income. Specifically, a ₹1 increase in PDS value translated into approximately ₹1.2 in additional wage income, most likely via two channels: improved nutrition boosting productivity, and a general equilibrium effect in labor markets. In other words,  beyond the direct transfer benefit from the PDS, the indirect economic benefit helped households bolster food security.

A particularly interesting finding is that the impact of the PDS transfers was amplified during years of adverse climate shocks, especially when there was low rainfall. In such years, food insecurity and child malnutrition risks typically spike, and yet the NFSA-induced transfers provided a buffer. This climate interaction effect suggests that nutrition-sensitive safety nets like the PDS can also play a vital role in promoting climate resilience and in providing adaptation strategies to vulnerable populations.

Three central policy implications arise from this research. First, even without complementary behavioral interventions, food transfers alone can meaningfully improve child nutrition, contrary to prior evidence suggesting limited effects without accompanying nutrition education. Second, the positive labor market effects of the PDS can reinforce the welfare effects of social protection. Finally, by mitigating nutritional shocks induced by climate change,  the PDS demonstrates its value as a climate resilience instrument. 

Final Word
This research plausibly demonstrates that the NFSA-driven expansion of India’s PDS significantly improved child nutrition, raised household earnings, and enhanced climate resilience. The findings make a strong case for well-designed and widely implemented in-kind transfer programs as a powerful tool in the global fight against undernutrition, not just in India but in other low- and middle-income countries.

*Views expressed are personal.