More households getting two square meals a day: Govt

Percentage of households getting two square meals a day has gradually increased over the years to reach 98.9 per cent in 2009-10 in rural areas, and 99.6 per cent in the urban centres, Parliament was informed today.

"...the percentage of households that have reported getting two square meals a day throughout the year has gradually increased from 94.5 per cent in 1993-94 to 98.9 per

cent in 2009-10 in rural India and from 98.1 per cent in 1993-94 to 99.6 per cent in urban India," Food Minister K V Thomas said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He was quoting the findings of NSS report no-547 on the 'Perceived Adequacy of Food Consumption in Indian Households', released in February 2013.

The consumer expenditure survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, provides estimates of household consumer expenditure and its distribution at national and state levels, Thomas said.

"No state government/Union territory administration including NCT of Delhi has reported any incident of death due to hunger and starvation so far," he added.

Thomas said the Centre is providing foodgrains at highly subsidised prices to the people through public distribution system and other welfare schemes such as mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).

In 2012-13, he said the Centre has so far allocated 578.41 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to States and the Union Territories under PDS.

In addition, 49.26 lakh tonnes of foodgrains have also been allocated under other welfare schemes.

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