HYDERABAD: While the Covid-19 induced lockdown was debilitating for citizens, a new study has found that nearly 40 per cent of the residents of Hyderabad faced food insecurity. The study “Impact of Covid-19 on Household Food Security” found major parts of Hyderabad saw a deterioration in their food security status. As per the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic research conducted by ICRISAT, nearly 40 per cent of the households surveyed showed a deterioration in their ability to purchase food. Another 17 per cent experienced moderate levels of food insecurity and 25 per cent experienced mild food insecurity. For this, the researchers deployed the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
The research was conducted in four phases between 2018 and 2021 January which allowed it to gauge the impact of the pandemic in two phases of before pandemic and after the pandemic. The researchers found that this was largely attributed to the fewer days of work available to citizens owing to lockdown and its effects. From the commencement of the pandemic till the research was conducted, there were 240 days that people could find work, the researchers found. Of this, those households which saw the deterioration in their food security status were out of job for 140 days indicating how precarious the situation had become for them.
Crucially, the report found that to cope with this lack of food, a section of the people who were categorised under “Intense insecurity for food” tended to take loans or liquidate their savings to cope with food stress, indicating the situation during the first lockdown and subsequent months. Those with mild food insecurity could merely make do by dipping into their stored food stocks.“More than 70 per cent of the households in the moderate and deteriorated categories borrowed money to cope with the exogenous shock of the pandemic,” said the study.The study also found that the category which suffered the most was self-employed households living in urban areas. Overall those living in urban areas were more likely to face food insecurity than those in rural and semi-urban areas.
ICRISAT findings
Nearly 40 per cent of the households surveyed showed a deterioration in their ability to purchase food
Another 17 per cent experienced moderate levels of food insecurity and 25 per cent experienced mild food insecurity