No, Amit Shah Did Not Goof Up By Referring To Milk Production In Grams
Major government and external data sources show that milk production per head is measured in units of weight like grams
Several users of social media are incorrectly calling out Union Home Minister Amit Shah for referring to the production of milk per capita in grams (a unit to measure weight) instead of litres (to measure liquid).
BOOM found that major government and external data sources on the production of milk have referred to it in a unit of weight - grams, kilograms or tons.
Shah made these comments at the IDF Dairy Summit in Greater Noida on September 12.
He says at the 25 minutes and 10 second mark that per head, India's milk consumption had risen from 40 grams in 1970 to 155 grams in 2021. His speech (originally in Hindi) can be found in the video below.
Several Congress supporters called him out for expressing a unit of measuring milk production in grams instead of litres . It comes a little after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was called out for a faux pas for referring to atta (wheatflour) in litres in a speech, which he immediately corrected.
What does the data say?
Several government and external data sources refer to the production of milk and per head production of milk in a unit of weight - like kilos, tons or grams - instead of a unit measuring liquids.
In the Economic Survey released this year for financial year 2021 - 2022, the per capita production of milk is given as a part of a holistic overview of the agriculture and primary sector in India, also showing eggs and meat.
In FY21, data from the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (cited by the Economic Survey) showed that the availability of milk was 467 grams per capita. It can be found here in the seventh chapter on page 251.
The National Dairy Development Board, of which Varghese Kurian was the first chairman, also shares India's production data in tons. It has production and per capita availability data from 1991 - 1992 to 2019 - 2020.
The production is in million tons, while the per capita data is in grams per day.
This can be found here.
Further, data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, of the United Nations, also expressed the production of milk in tons, among other agricultural commodities. The milk production has been split into by the Food and Agriculture Organisation into cow's milk and buffalo's milk.
The data can be found here (the user would have to filter for India from all countries present). The data is for India for the year 2020.
The practice of expressing milk capacity in tons, grams, kilogram or a measure of weight is not new.
BOOM also found a document of the National Sample Survey from 1975, covering the 23rd round (July 1968 - June 1969) and the 24th round (July 1970 to June 1971).
Consumer expenditure on agricultural products is given for various urban and rural groups. The per capital consumption of milk has been referred to in grams here too on various occasions. It can be found here.
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