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Review Papers | Social Work | India | Volume 12 Issue 6, June 2023

Food Accessibility of Unorganized Workers in India

Payel De

Abstract: Food accessibility, when achieved ideally then, will reflect on an individual’s corresponding nutrition and health status. The NFHS-5 revealed increased incidences of malnutrition in the form of under nutrition, over nutrition, and specific deficiencies. Thus, food accessibility for the Indian population is not sufficient. Unorganized workers, the largest working Indian population, were already devoid of social security from the employment perspective thrashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflicts, market stagnation, inadequate recovery of the labor market, and inflation resulted in insufficient food accessibility by unorganized workers. Higher inflation rates, along with the insufficient increase in corresponding income due to job loss or a slower pace of job recovery, might seriously hamper household living costs. The higher cost of living, in turn, disturbed food accessibility, which got reflected through the GHI 2022, where India was classified at a serious hunger level. GOI is trying to protect the food accessibility of this population by providing free food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana. The subsidy can be a solution to food accessibility in the short term. There is also the threat of increased climate change-induced hunger and reduced agricultural yields by 2030 in India. Therefore, structural reforms are needed as the sustainable solution for optimum food accessibility and food security for unorganized workers and the Indian population from the public health and health from the individual level.

Keywords: Unorganised Workers, Food Accessibility, Nutrition, Hunger, Inclusive Development

Edition: Volume 12 Issue 6, June 2023,

Pages: 858 - 862