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We examine the association between calorie-based indicators and experiential indicators of food security using data from slum households of Kolkata surveyed in 2010-2011. Experiential indicator is constructed following the United States Household Food Security Survey Module. Calorie based indicator is constructed using household-specific calorie norms. Modelling techniques take account of potential endogeneity in the relationship. The two indicators are aligned in the same direction implying more accurate targeting. However, there is a lack of one-to-one correspondence between the two measures and the drivers of calorie deprivation and food insecurity also differ, suggesting a one-size-fits-all policy cannot address both concerns simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of access to credit prevents poor households in developing countries from diversifying into income-generating activities that could safeguard them against unforeseen shocks and seasonality, leaving them susceptible to food deprivation, even when aggregate food supplies are adequate. Microcredit programmes help these households to access financial capital that could help improve their food security situation. We examine how microcredit affects different measures of food security; namely, household calorie availability, dietary diversity indicators and anthropometric status of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) and children under the age of 5 years. We find that microcredit programme participation increases calorie availability both at the intensive and extensive margins, but does not improve dietary diversity and only has mixed effects on the anthropometric measures. We also find that the effect of microcredit participation on food security may be non-linear in which participation initially has either no effect on food security or may actually worsen it, before improving it in the longer run. Our results help to explain why existing short-term evaluations of microcredit sometimes do not show any positive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the poverty–food security nexus, using an experience-based indicator of food security constructed using a cross-section sample of slum households in Kolkata, within the framework of a simultaneous ordered probit model. We find, a poor household is also likely to be food insecure. Additionally education, gender, and household composition are major drivers of food insecurity among low-income urban households, with the policy implication that anti-poverty policies should be successful in eliminating household food insecurity, however, they need to be complemented with human capital investment and gender empowerment to be most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]