Above lines are the part of the budget speech of finance minister Pranab mukherjee on Right to food draft bill. An empowered group of ministers, headed by mukherjee, prepares the draft bill.
A universal food security is one of the congress party’s election manifesto2009 promises. Which particularly address the most deprived & marginalized section of society & promise for 25 k.g. food grains per month at Rs.3 for BPL. However, the bill still has to get clearance of parliament & will take further more time to be implemented. But the right of food indirectly comes under article 21 of our constitution, where Supreme Court has regarded it an essential necessity for a dignified human life. Let us look at the provisions of this proposed bill.
The draft bill guarantees a legal security against hunger by providing 25 k.g. food grains per month at Rs.3 per k.g. to the BPL families. The BPL families will be identify as per the norms of planning commission . The central government will supply food grains to state government through the central pool . The bill has provisions of food security allowance that will be given in case of not availability of food grains to the beneficiaries. It is a kind of cash subsidy for poor people .The bill have an exclusive provision of establishing food tribunals at taluka & district level & an apex food security tribunal for the adjudication of violation or malfunctioning of the bill. Certainly, this is a very useful provision, which will help to fight with corruption that has become a comman feature in government food schemes in most states.
Here a significant question arises, that what is food security? Food security means a social, economic & physical capability & access of a person towards necessary & adequate food In that context this bill could be seen as a positive vision against poverty & hunger . specially when India stand at 65th rank in global hunger index 2009 , which is merely better then Bangladesh & worse then Sudan & Nigeria . The percentage of underweight children below 5 years is 42.5 in India .
But still the drat bill is totally rejected by the activist of right for food campaign & regarded as anti –poor by left parties & faced a huge criticism from various organizations of civil society . So let’s examine some important features of the proposed bill.
The first objection on the bill is, that it does not talk about universal food security, instead of that its focused only on BPL families . Therefore, in one sense it is like any other government scheme for poors not a particular right, like right to information, right to work or education. As national council for applied economic research has already pointed out that inclusion of non –poors in subsidized food schemes is a much severe task.
The second issue is the identification of beneficiaries or the BPL people. The bill for this purpose depends on planning commission data. However, there are different data is available on BPL population. . The data released by planning commission in 2004-05 was 30 core, the saxena committee estimated 9.5 crore & DP wadhwa committee estimate is 20 crore.
The problem of different data of BPL population lies in definition of poverty line. Which is defined as calorie intake of per person. ( that is 2100 cal for urban India & 2400 cal in rural India). As Abhijit Sen, member of planning commission indicated , that if above definition taken then 80% of rural India & 64% urban India will come under poverty line. Tendulkar committee covered 38% of population under poverty line
In short, the poverty measurement should be based on income rather then calorie intake.
The another concern is about the quantity of food grains. At present, 35 k.g. food grains are being distributed under Antyoday Ann Yozna , at Rs. 2 per k.g. the Supreme Court also mandated 35 k.g. food grains as the essential requirement for food security , in its decision on Right to food PIL . Therefore, in one sense, whatever the bill is giving is lesser then, what is already been given.
The provision of cash subsidy is also not much attractive one. Because since last couple of years India has seen a sever inflation or rapid prise rise in food items. In case of hyperinflation, how much the fixed amount of subsidy could help is doubtful. Then the distribution of cash subsidy is the responsibility of state governments. Here the effective execution of law would be very much depend on the food tribunals that will be setup on taluka & district level In India , we have largest number of food base schemes in world , at one side our grain stock is rising ( in 2008-09 we had record production of grains 228 million approx.)
But at the other side half of the undernourished person(252 million) are in our country. Obviously, we need to get rid of this situation.
Right to food if executed well, then can add another landmark achievement for UPA 2nd term government. As NAREGS did for UPA 1st term government. It will make our democratic structure more equitable, more right base & more just. However, it need to meet with above concerns. The exclusion of APLs from security net is another concerned issue. the policy maker should keep this in mind that food security just do not limit only to a mare economic access of food , but it should make the lives of our people dignified , productive & healthy.
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