Poverty–Food Security Nexus: Evidence from a Survey of Urban Slum Dwellers in Kolkata

•We randomly sample 500 slum households in Kolkata to measure experiential food security.•We examine the association of the experiential indicator with income poverty.•We test the hypothesis that poverty does not automatically imply food insecurity.•We find, a poor household is likely to be food insecure.•Gender, education, and household composition also influence household food security status. We explore the poverty–food security nexus, using an experience-based indicator of food security constructed using a cross-section sample of slum households in Kolkata, within the framework of a simultaneous ordered probit model. We find, a poor household is also likely to be food insecure. Additionally education, gender, and household composition are major drivers of food insecurity among low-income urban households, with the policy implication that anti-poverty policies should be successful in eliminating household food insecurity, however, they need to be complemented with human capital investment and gender empowerment to be most effective.