An adequate food intake, in terms of quantity and quality, is a key to
healthy life. Malnutrition is the most serious consequence of food
insecurity and has a multitude of health and economic implications.
India has the world\u2019s largest population living in slums, and
these have largely been underserved areas. The State of Food Insecurity
in the World (2012) estimates that India is home to more than 217
million undernourished people. Various studies have been conducted to
assess food insecurity at the global level; however, the literature is
limited as far as India is concerned. The present study was conducted
with the objective of documenting the prevalence of food insecurity at
the household level and the factors determining its existence in an
urban slum population of northern India. This cross-sectional study was
conducted in an urban resettlement colony of South Delhi, India. A
pre-designed, pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used for
collecting socioeconomic details and information regarding dietary
practices. Food insecurity was assessed using Household Food Insecurity
Access Scale (HFIAS). Logistic regression analysis was performed to
determine the factors associated with food insecurity. A total of 250
women were interviewed through house-to-house survey. Majority of the
households were having a nuclear family (61.6%), with mean familysize
being 5.5 (SD\ub12.5) and the mean monthly household income being INR
9,784 (SD\ub1631). Nearly half (53.3%) of the mean monthly household
income was spent on food. The study found that a total of 77.2%
households were food-insecure, with 49.2% households being mildly
food-insecure, 18.8% of the households being moderately food-insecure,
and 9.2% of the households being severely food-insecure. Higher
education of the women handling food (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.15-0.92;
p 640.03) and number of earning members in the household (OR 0.68,
95% CI 0.48-0.98; p 640.04) were associated with lesser chance/odds
of being food-insecure. The study demonstrated a high prevalence of
food insecurity in the marginalized section of the urban society. The
Government of India needs to adopt urgent measures to combat this
problem