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latter article, the authors begin with two opposite narratives of the post-reform India, abrighter one based on accelerated growth and a gloomy one rooted in poor performance in education and health. In articulating the gloomy narrative, the authors regurgitate the malnutrition indicators that place India below nearly all sub-Saharan African countries without indicating any of the qualifications discussed in Deaton and Drèze (2009).
    Adult Nutrition . The story told by the critics about adult malnutrition (as distinct from child malnutrition) is equally suspect. The source of alarm here is the steady decline in per capita calorie consumption in rural India with no clear trend in urban India during the past twenty-five years. Deaton and Drèze (2008), who provide a comprehensive survey of the evidence, point to per capita calorie consumption and the proportion of the population reporting lack of food as sending conflicting signals on hunger. On the one hand, per capita calorie consumption fell from 2,240 in 1983 to between 2,000 and 2,100 in the first half of the 2000s. On the other hand, the proportion of those reporting lack of food fell from 17.3 percent in 1983 to just 2.5 percent in 2004–2005. In addition, per capita protein consumption has declined while per capita fat consumption has risen in both rural and urban areas.
    There are several possible explanations for the decline in calorie consumption while the proportion of the population reporting lack of food drops dramatically. One is that increased mechanization in agriculture, improved means of transportation, and improved absorption due to improved epidemiological environment (better child and adult health and better access to safe drinking water) have curtailed the need for calorie consumption. Another possible explanation is a shift from coarse grains, such as millet and sorghum, which are calorie intensive, to finer ones, such as rice and fruits.
    Adult weights and heights, which are more direct measures of nutrition, do show steady even if slow improvements. According to the NNMB surveys to which we have previously alluded, the population with below-normal body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 fell from 56 percent to 33 percent for men and from 52 percent to 36 percent for women between 1975–1979 and 2004–2005 (Deaton and Drèze 2009, Table 10). In absolute terms, the proportions of men and women with below-normal BMIprevailing in 2004–2005 are high when seen in an international context. But this is an issue relating to the level , not change , which is the center of concern of those focusing on increased hunger.
    The purpose of pushing back against the critics is not to suggest for a moment that all is well with child and adult nutrition in India. We fully appreciate that despite the progress it has made, India remains very far from the progress made by the developed countries in all aspects of health including child and adult nutrition and therefore has a long way to go.
    But this requires a proper assessment of where precisely the greatest deficiencies are so that scarce revenues are spent prudently. Overstating problems has its own hazards: if healthy children are designated as malnourished, we might push them toward obesity and, likewise, if we misdiagnose the problem of a lack of proper balance in diet as one of low calorie consumption, we would erroneously push calorie consumption.
Myth 5.3: The Kerala model has yielded superior education and health outcomes .
    Thanks in part to the UNDP advocacy of its policy experience as a role model for development, the “Kerala model” has gained an iconic status in some development circles in both India and abroad. The view in these circles is that the Kerala model has successfully delivered ultra-high achievements in both education and health despite its low incomes and slow growth through redistribution and efficient public spending. But the claim crumbles in the face of careful