As per one estimate, 6,000 children die on an average everyday in India because of hunger and hunger-related complications. A World Bank report claims three of every ten world’s poorest people are living in India while almost 17.5% of the total population is severely malnourished, according to a report of the Food and Agriculture Organization-India.
At a time when millions of tonnes of foodgrains are being offered to rats in government storage facilities and other million tonnes are being perished because of lack of weather-proof storage facilities, even as millions starve due to their incapacity to purchase, a legal assurance in the form of right to food assumes high significance. If a nation assures its citizen of the fundamental needs of food, it is performing its basic duty.
Statistics only support the importance of such a Bill. As per the Tendulkar Committee, 37 per cent of India’s population is still below the poverty line. But the Sengupta report claims it is not 37 but 77 per cent who are below the poverty line. Every 1 in 3 malnourished children in the world lives in India. While child mortality rate is very high, 76% of the people in India do not get the daily required amount of calories, according to Professor Utsa Patnaik. If we contrast this situation against the record 220 billion kg (160 Billion contributed by rice and wheat) of food production in the last year, it is nearly 15 kg per person per month. Even with leakages and the provisions for future emergencies, it is still possible to provide everyone with 7 kg per person per month. If this is the basis of assured public distribution of food to the poor, the Bill or the Ordinance is surely a welcome measure. It should not be delayed.
The Bill aims to give legal rights to 67 per cent of the population over a uniform quantity of 5 kg foodgrains at a fixed price of Rs 1-3 per kg through ration shops. It requires Rs 2 lakh crore for the Government of India to invest to implement the scheme of distribution of food through public distribution system (PDS). The Ordinance of Food Security gave six months to the states to implement the objectives through the PDS. In an interview, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had said: “We have to provide more budgetary provisions for enhancing agriculture production and to keep a continuity in this process. For that we had to provide more for irrigation, for water conservation, electricity, availability of fertilisers, quality seeds. This is from the production side. And from the distribution side, there is a requirement of warehouses, godowns at a lower level also. So some massive programme has been taken in the last three to four years keeping in mind that we have to go here. Because that time, I was looking after food also. So there are schemes to construct new godowns , so that work is also going on. Practically, for the last three and half years we have been working in that direction. So it is not anything done hurriedly. It is a conscious decision, carefully considered.”
The objective of the proposed legislation is to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life of dignity and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.
The right to food is contemplated to be translated into a practical reality. The eligible households will be entitled to 5 kgs of foodgrains per person per month, and Antyodaya households to 35 kgs per household per month. The combined coverage of Priority and Antyodaya households shall extend “up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population”. The Schedule I gave the PDS issue prices as Rs 3/2/1 for rice/wheat/millets (they are called “coarse grains” in the Bill). There is a provision to revise these prices after three years.
For children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, the law guarantees an ageappropriate meal, free of charge, through the local anganwadi. For children aged 6- 14 years, one free mid-day meal shall be provided every day (except on school holidays) in all schools run by local bodies, government and government-aided schools, up to Class VIII. For children below six months, “exclusive breastfeeding shall be promoted”. Children who suffer from malnutrition will be identified through the local anganwadi and meals will be provided to them free of charge “through the local anganwadi”. Every pregnant and lactating mother is entitled to a free meal at the local anganwadi (during pregnancy and six months after child birth) as well as maternity benefits of Rs 6,000, in instalments.
“Meal” is defined in the Bill as “hot cooked meal or ready to eat meal or take home ration, as may be prescribed by the Central Government”. All “meals” have to meet nutritional norms specified in Schedule II. It is also noted that the entitlements of women and children are to be delivered by state governments through schemes “in accordance with the guidelines, including cost sharing” to be prescribed by the Central Government. Every school and anganwadi is expected to have “facilities for cooking meals, drinking water and sanitation”. To settle controversies, the Bill explains that for purposes of issuing ration cards, the eldest woman in the household (not less than 18 years of age) shall be considered head of the household.
The Bill also envisages constitution of a State Food Commission with chairperson and five other members assisted by a member-secretary. The Commission includes at least two women and one member each from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The SFC has to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Act, i.e., realize the right to food, give advice to the states governments and their agencies and inquire into violations of entitlements either suo motu or on receipt of a complaint, and with “all the powers of a civil court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908”. The state commissions also have to hear appeals against orders of the District Grievance Redressal Officer and prepare annual reports to be laid before the state legislature.
Another significant feature of the Bill is that it provides for a two-tier grievance redressal structure, involving the District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO) and the State Food Commission. State governments must also put in place an internal grievance redressal mechanism which may include call centres, helplines, designation of nodal officers, “or such other mechanisms as may be prescribed”. DGROS shall be appointed by state governments for each district to hear complaints and take necessary action according to norms to be prescribed by state governments. If a complainant (or the officer or authority against whom an order has been passed by the DGRO) is not satisfied, he or she may file an appeal before the State Food Commission.
The Food Commissions have powers to impose penalties up to Rs 5000 against the officer for not complying with the order of DGRO. In case of “non-supply of the entitled quantities of foodgrains or meals to entitled persons”, such persons will be entitled to a food security allowance from the state government, as prescribed by the central government.
Mandatory transparency provisions include: (1) placing all PDS-related records in the public domain and keeping them open for inspection to the public; (2) conducting periodic social audits of the PDS and other welfare schemes; (3) using information and communication technology (including end-to-end computerisation of the PDS) “to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels”; (4) setting up vigilance committees at state, district, block and fair price shop levels to supervise all schemes under the Act.
The main duty of the Central Government is to provide foodgrains (or, failing that, funds) to state governments, at prices specified in Schedule I, to implement the main entitlements. It also has to “provide assistance” to state governments to meet local distribution costs, but on its own terms (“as may be prescribed”). The main obligation of state governments is to implement the relevant schemes, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the central government. States are free to extend benefits and entitlements beyond what is prescribed in the Bill, from their own resources. Local Authorities and Panchayati Raj Institutions are also made responsible for proper implementation of the Act in their respective areas, and may be given additional responsibilities by notification.
This food security program is considered as largest in the world. When it is fully operational, it is expected that state has to spend Rs 125 thousand crore per annum. As the state has to spend such a huge amount to supply 62 million tones of rice, wheat and cereals, the food subsidy percentage will rise up to 1 to 1.2 of GDP from the current estimate of 0.8 per cent. Some economists estimate that it would cause cascading effect on inflation and will put the middle class to burden. If a draught compels the state to import foodgrains, that will be an additional burden.
The Indian Council for Medical Research has recommended that an adult requires 14kg of food grains per month and children 7kg, whereas the Bill entitles to 5kg per person per month, which means 166g of cereal per person per day. The Bill provides only for cereals with no entitlements to basic food necessities such as pulses and edible oil required to combat malnutrition.
“Undernourishing has to be tackled at the young age itself. If this opportunity is missed, we will miss a strong youth for a generation at least, and also it closes forever perpetuating to an intergenerational cycle of undernutrition and deprivation,” said Right to Food Campaign, an umbrella organisation of NGOs. Farmers’ bodies have apprehended that the Bill would lead to nationalisation of agriculture by making the government the biggest buyer, hoarder and seller of foodgrains. There is a clear feeling that this would distort the market mechanism and reduce the bargaining power of farmers. The Bill should have made provisions for production of food or for support of small and marginal farmers who are food producers, which would have helped farmers to survive and prevent suicides. The farmer should benefit from the need for food, especially when the right to food is legally guaranteed.
Social activist Harsh Mander criticized the Bill stating it allows the entry of private contractors and commercial interests in the supply of food in the integrated child development scheme. The norms like two children as basis for entitlement will lead to discrimination of mothers who have more children. Above all the delivery mechanism is full of flaws besides the PDS becoming the hotbed of corruption. Unless the PDS is strengthened, food may not reach the ‘hand to mouth’ families.
The Bharatiya Janata Party also expressed skepticism when it said “it would prefer to end Congress hunger for ill-gotten money”. Eminent economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has robustly backed the National Food Security Bill. According to CRISIL, a global credit rating agency, the successful implementation of the Food Security Bill will leave more savings in the hands of the rural and urban poor. Though the Bill is yet to be implemented, it remains to be seen if the government will be able to address everybody’s concerns and execute the Bill in its right spirit.
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