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Eating Chapattis with Salt and Water: Bundelkhand’s Chronic Food Insecurity

Food insecurity prevails when the availability of sufficient nutritious and safe food is threatened. This article examines conditions in Bundelkhand’s Banda district and analyses the reasons behind the conditions of food insecurity prevalent there. On the basis of household-level primary data, body mass index (BMI) and 24-hour dietary recall (24-HDR) have been used to measure the chronic and transitory dimensions of food insecurity. The overall sex specific prevalence of chronic energy deficiency (CED) shows that both males and females are passing through a critical situation with respect to their nutritional status, with females being more underprivileged. Nearly two-fifths of the households remain hungry and are consuming calories less than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 1,890 calories, with wasted children being the biggest sufferers of CED. Persistent drought conditions combined with the unavailability of assured means of irrigation and faulty implementation of government systems and services, have ensured that Banda district remains in a state of chronic food insecurity.