The government plans to quantify the economic losses the country suffers by compromising on food safety.
The country?s food regulator ? Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ? has already initiated talks with the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, in this regard. ?In India, data on economic losses due to food safety is either not available and if available, it is lying scattered with various agencies. There is a need to pool in expertise and estimate how much we lose collectively by not paying attention to issues like food hygiene, which is a critical factor in determining health and productivity of an individual and society. Such figures would sensitise various sections of the society, including policymakers, to take this aspect of life more seriously,? a health ministry official said.
The official added the food regulator is urging states to consider projects on ?food safety related economic losses? so that a disaggregated picture of the problem can emerge. It would also help convince the decision makers in the states to understand the importance of food safety and how it can contribute to GDP.
An exercise such as this may involve quantification of economic losses to the society due to poor hygiene in terms of expenditure on health care and work loss.
While this may be the first time that government has embarked on a national-level exercise to put a number to such losses, there have been instances of international agencies carrying out similar, if not identical, exercises. A World Health Organization (WHO) estimate shows that India loses 27,316 ‘healthy years’ per 1 lakh population per annum to illness and disability, 80% more than China. India’s performance on this crucial health parameter, which also indicates labour productivity, appears gloomy even when compared to emerging economies in Latin America. While Brazil boasts of a loss of only 19,475 years, Venezuela, Mexico and Paraguay lose less than 17,000 years, say WHO statistics.
A World Bank-supported study by Water and Sanitation Program estimated the total economic impact of inadequate sanitation in India at 6.4% of its GDP in 2006, translating into an annual economic impact of $53.8 billion or a per person annual impact of $48. The health-related economic impact of inadequate sanitation stood at $38.5 billion.
The financial losses that India incurs puts it in the league of Bangladesh and much worse than Vietnam, Phillipines and Indonesia when seen in terms of the GDP share impacted by lack of sanitation.