Table 2 compares the income elasticities of consumption of basic foods among sample children with total expenditure elasticities of demand for all age groups in rural India. The young child's protein, vitamin A, and iron intake would increase by even less. This would suggest that, for the sample population as a whole, a simple income supplementation program unaccompanied by other interventions is unlikely to have a major effect on their food intake. Table 3 shows the nutritional status of the children according to the Gomez classification, grouped by per capita income and sex. Very poor communities for which nutrition education cannot be effective without simultaneous increase in real income exist in pockets in most countries and more generally in some of the low-income countries most in need of development.
Nutrition education teaches better uses of resources that are already available to the family.
When these resources fall below a certain level, redistributing them does not help. The low-cost diet offered in the centre, making use of groundnut cake as a source of protein, cost 60 paise per child per day. Because these families could allot no more than 10 paise a day to each pre-school child, it is very doubtful whether they had the means to feed their children. Very high a. Approximate estimates by informed individuals. The poverty threshold below which the family cannot afford to redistribute food to the weaning-age child is low.