(Premium) Gist of Kurukshetra Magazine: January 2014

Premium - Gist of Kurukshetra Magazine: January 2014

NEW HOPE TO FIGHT HUNGER

The much awaited National Food Security Bill has been recently passed by voice vote the Parliament. It will ensure legal food entitlement to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population across the country at reasonably cheaper price. The scheme provides for distribution of rice at Rs. 3 per kilogram, wheat at Rs. 2 and coarse grains at Re. 1 per person. From the date to be notified Government would provide 5 kg of food-grains per person per month to Priority households, and 35 kg per household per month to 25 million Antyodaya households.

The total number of Priority and Antyodaya household would be 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population, thus covering about 180 million households as against to only 100 million households right now. It is a welcome step and will reduce hunger and malnutrition in especially from the underprivileged class in urban and rural areas.

The history of the Food Security Legislation in India dates back to 1942 when the Public Distribution System (PDS) was evolved owing to shortage of food grains during World War II. The then government had started distributing food grains through PDS and the intervention had been continued in major cities and certain food deficient regions. However, the policy on PDS has been witnessed major changes with a universal approach in certain phases after independence. The Seventh Five Year Plan assigned the PDS a crucial role by bringing the entire population into its ambit and over the years. It evolved as an important government intervention towards ensuring availability of food-grains to the public at affordable prices as well as for tackling poverty However, a Targeted PDS (TPDS) for food-grains has been in place since 1997. Under the TPDS the quantum of provisioning of food-grains varies across Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) households with different prices.

The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data indicated that per capita food expenditure during the period 1993 to 2010 increased ‘only by 0.2 per cent annually in rural India, and decreased by 0.1 per cent per annum in the urban areas.

The cereal intake of the bottom 20 per cent in rural India is only 10 kg per month as against 12 kg for the top class of the population, though the poor need more food as they do more manual work and their access to fruits, vegetables and milk is negligible. From their limited resources the poor are forced to spend more on health, children’s education, transport and fuel than before. Food is still needed, but not demanded for lack of resources. In the process they get stunted and malnourished. Endemic hunger continues to afflict a large proportion of Indian population.

The government of India took more than four years after the President of India’s declaration in the Parliament on 4th June 2009 to bring the National Food Security Act through an Ordinance. The Government’s food security bill promises the country’s 810 million poor persons coarse grains (such as sorghum, pearl millet or bajra, and finger millet or ragi) at 1 per kg. These coarse cereals are rich in minerals especially micronutrients and would help to reduce the micronutrients deficiency in the targeted populace. The proposed National Food Security scheme will annually need 62 million tonnes of food-grains (rice, wheat and coarse cereals such as sorghum, pearl millet or bajra, and finger millet or ragi). Last year, Government Agencies procured around 82 million tonnes of food-grains. However, having passed the food security Bill in the Parliament, its ardent proponents are promising freedom from hunger and malnutrition. The skeptics, however, believe that it will have dire consequences on the fiscal situation, further eroding India’s business confidence, slowing down growth, further tumbling of the rupee and higher inflation. To know the reality, however, one needs to dig a little deeper and only future course of action by the government will tell the real success of the National Food Security Bill.

However, for this to become a reality, the government must focus on identifying Below Poverty Line (BPL) households correctly during the exercise of income status classification for the success of the National Food Security Bill. Once those BPL households, which currently do not have access to subsidized food, receive an appropriate identity proof, they would be able to avail food subsidy, amounting to the difference between the market prices and the subsidized prices. Then the Government will see the real fruits of this passed bill. The National Food Security Bill’s success would also be measured by the proportion of eligible households that actually benefit from the bill, especially in states with a large BPL population. The government can leverage the Aadhar platform, and link their Unique Identification Number to income status, once the deserving beneficiaries are identified. It will also pulp achieve the Millennium Development Goal’s (MDG) of India through implementation of the National Food Security Act. The successful implementation of the National Food Security Bill by the Government Agencies will leave more savings in the hands of rural and urban below poverty line (BPL) households, enabling them to spend on health, education and nutritious food and ultimately to
overcome the problem of malnutrition form the targeted population of India.

At this point of time we can only visualize the bright future of the National Food Security Bill to reduce the hunger and malnutrition from the underprivileged Indian population in the years to come.2.

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