Can a poor family afford enough protein?
At the World Bank's poverty line of about ₹60 a person a day, 54 g of protein from moong dal alone costs about ₹27, close to half the day's money. Whey costs about five times as much per gram. 40% of Indians could not afford a healthy diet in 2024.
Open for ideas, evidence and questions.
What we know
ICMR puts an adult's protein need at 0.83 g per kg of body weight, about 54 g a day for a 65 kg adult. The 120 g often recommended for building muscle is a gym target, not a requirement.
The World Bank's extreme-poverty line of $3.00 a day, adjusted for prices, works out to about ₹60 per person per day in India. 5.3% of Indians were below it in 2022-23. Rural households spend 47% of their budget on food (HCES 2023-24).
What 54 g and 120 g of protein cost if they came from one food:
| Food | Price | Cost of 54 g | Cost of 120 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moong dal (about 24% protein) | ₹119 a kg | about ₹27 | about ₹59 |
| Tur dal (about 22% protein) | ₹153 a kg | about ₹38 | about ₹83 |
| Milk (about 3.2% protein) | ₹59 a litre | about ₹100 | about ₹222 |
| Whey concentrate (24 g a scoop) | ₹1,949 a kg | about ₹133 | about ₹295 |
Dal and milk prices are all-India retail averages from April 2024 (Department of Consumer Affairs). The whey price is a 1 kg pack's online price in April 2026. Rice and wheat supply some protein too, so a real diet mixes sources.
By FAO and World Bank estimates, 40% of Indians could not afford a healthy diet in 2024, against 44% in Bangladesh, 12% in China, 9% in Vietnam, 4.5% in the US and 2.5% in the UK.
Open questions
- At your local prices, how much of a ₹60 day would 54 g of protein take, from pulses, milk or eggs?
- How much protein do ration shops, anganwadis and school meals in your area supply each day?
- Why can far more people afford a healthy diet in China or Vietnam than in India, and was it incomes, food prices or public programmes that changed first?
- How many minutes of minimum-wage work buy 50 g of protein in India, compared with other countries?
- Should pulses and eggs be part of the public distribution system everywhere, and what would that cost?
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