Out of the people interviewed in 14 states for this survey, 79 percent of the households said that they had to face some kind of "food insecurity" in 2021. 25 percent of the households 11 faced " horrific food insecurity." The survey was conducted jointly by several organizations including the Right to Food Campaign.
The survey found that more than 60 percent of people were either worried about not getting enough food or they could not eat nutritious food or they could eat only a few items. 45 percent of the people said that their household had run out of food in the month preceding the survey. About 33 percent of the people said that they or their family could not afford one time meal.
The survey was conducted between December 2021 and January 2022 and covered 6,697 people. Of these, 41 percent of the households said that the nutritional quality of their food had declined compared to the pre-pandemic period. 67 percent of the households said that they could not afford the cooking gas.
65 percent of households reported that their income had fallen compared to the situation before the pandemic. The current income of 60 percent of these households is less than half of what it was at that time. These results show that even two years after the start of the epidemic, the income and general economic condition of a large number of households in India has not been restored. 32 percent of the households reported that at least one of their members either lost their job or suffered a salary loss.
23 per cent of the families said that they had to spend a huge amount on the treatment. In these families, 13 percent of the households spent more than Rs 50,000 and 35 percent of the households spent more than Rs 10,000. About 45 percent of the households reported that they have outstanding loans. Of these, 21 percent of the households have a debt of more than Rs 50,000.
For every six families , at least one child dropped out of school. One child out of every 16 families had to go to work. Of those surveyed, 4,881 were from rural areas and 1,816 from urban areas. 31 percent of the households were from Scheduled Tribes, 25 percent from Scheduled Castes, 19% from General Category, 15 percent from OBC and six percent from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups. At least 71% of the participants were women.