On 13-12-2011 14:37, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: > Hi, > In 'media and moral outrage' I saw that statistics pointing to > declining per capita availability of foodgrains was questioned. > > The source of that statistics is Utsa Patnaik - > http://ideaswebsite.org/featart/apr2004/Republic_Hunger.pdf. She > discusses the fallacy in the 'diversified basket' argument - > availability includes direct consumption and indirect use (for > livestock etc). So, availability always rises when incomes rise. If > availability falls, as it is the case with India, it signifies there's > acute distress. >
This is an astonishing shifting of goalposts by Utsa Patnaik. Especially astonishing because it contradicts her previous work. UP had originally used NSSO data to make a case that hunger was rising. NSSO is a survey that measures direct consumption by households. It found that *direct* cereal intake was falling, which UP said was proof that rural India was in crisis. Many people then pointed out that the same survey which she had cited also showed that consumption of green leafy vegetables, meat, eggs, dairy products, etc. had risen, which is where the explanation of the diversified basket comes about. Now Utsa Patnaik is claiming that the empirical evidence of household consumption doesn't matter because utilisation of foodgrains has fallen overall [1]. In that case, why did she use the consumption data to build her original case? Admittedly data collection in India is so terrible that it is likely that both the foodgrain absorption data and the overall consumption data are flawed. Even so, I don't think that it's that bizarre for foodgrain absorption to drop precipitously - food budgets have probably been diverted to other consumption that was just not possible in rural India earlier due to missing markets/ infrastructure: consumer goods (consumable and durable), automobiles, etc. [1] The contempt for empirical evidence seems to be a prominent feature in the Patnaik household. Her husband once complained that people criticising the CPM's misgovernance in West Bengal were resorting to crass empiricism. http://in.news.yahoo.com/blogs/opinions/crass-empiricism-102812052.html -- Regards, Aadisht Mailing address for lists: [email protected] Personal mailing address: [email protected] Phone: 96000 23067
