Social assistance policies and food insecurity among the elderly in India in 2017Cafiero–2018

Standard household-level food insecurity measures like per capita food expenditure mask individual-level heterogeneities in accessing food. This study applies experience-based individual-level food insecurity measures. We evaluate the effect of social assistance programmes, including cash transfers, in-kind transfers and joint effects of receiving both programmes on food insecurity faced by the elderly. The estimated results suggest that access to in-kind transfers reduces the probability of having reduced meals. Further, evaluating the relative effectiveness of the programme, we find the elderly with access to in-kind transfers compared to cash have reduced the likelihood of meal reduction, hunger, and not eating due to food scarcity. However, we do not observe the joint effect of receiving both programmes on food security. This is likely because state governments that provide complementary social assistance programmes reduce the value of cash transfers.