An ambitious new Food Security Bill is being drafted in India by the National Advisory Council (NAC). According to NDTV and The Hindu, about 79,000 crore rupees (just under $17 billion) per year would be spent under the bill to guarantee 75 percent of the Indian population with foodgrains at subsidized prices. This is up from the 57,000 crore rupees ($12.7 billion) which accounts for the government’s current food security programs, according to Narendra Jadhav of the NAC.
The population of 75 percent would be further classified as “priority” or as “general” in terms of the type of subsidized food they would receive. The “priority” households would receive 35 kg of grains at between 1-3 rupees, while the “general” would receive 20 kg at a subsidized price of no more than 50 percent of the current MSP (minimum support price).
If that sounds confusing, The Hindu wrapped it up nicely: “What this means is that those entitled to 35 kg of grain in the price range of Rs 1-3 will form approximately 40 percent of the total population, while those entitled to 20 kg will form approximately 35 per cent of the population.”
Prominent developmental economist and member of the NAC, Jean Dreze, criticized the bill, saying that the people receiving 20 kg are only saving about 100 rupees a month, something he says is “really, nothing.” Indeed, the NAC initially intended subsidized food for all, which would have cost 112,000 crore rupees ($25 billion) a year.
If the food security bill eventually passes in it’s current form, it will take sides in the debate on just what the “right to food,” first formally announced in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, means in terms of governmental responsibility to feed its citizens.
India has about 25 percent of the world’s hungry, according to the World Food Programme, and ranks 67 out of 84 on the Global Hunger Index, a measurement designed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The GHI takes into consideration three indicators; the proportion of people who are undernourished, the proportion of children under five who are underweight, and the child mortality rate. Of those indicators, 44 percent of India’s children under 5 years of age were underweight in 2005-06, down from 60 percent in 1990, according to the IFPRI.
Posted by Rishi Sidhu.
