Press Note
More than eight hundred persons from several organisations affiliated to the Right to Food Campaign came to Jantar Mantar in Delhi to stage a dharna pressing for amendments in the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013. The activists who came from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat, Jammu, Maharashtra and Delhi were farmers, children’s rights activist, NREGA workers, Women, Dalit, tribal organisations representatives, felt that the four year struggle of bringing in a comprehensive food security law was culminating into a law a finally. They were heartened that the National Food Security Ordinance was tabled as a bill today in the Lok Sabha, this being the first step towards debating the law, in order to bring in suitable amendments for a strong food law.
MPs cutting across parties also came to lend their voice to the demands of the campaign. They were Mr. Basudev Acharya and Rajeshji from the CPI (M), Mr. PRabodh Panda and Mr. D Raja (CPI), Mr. Ali Anwar (JD-U) and the sixth Mr. Prakash Javedkar (BJP) sent his message, being held up in Parliament.
All the MPs said that the need of the hour was food security to all, that is why the bill being tabled was welcome, however, the present bill made a mockery of food security. The MPs were unanimous that this bill was neither adequate, providing only 5 kgs per person per month, devoid of the nutritional component, has not talked of pulses and cooking oils and leaving 33 % people out of the coverage was in a way continuing with the APL and BPL principle. Universal was the refrain of all. Party MPs also expressed concern regarding the Schedule II of the NFSO, which opened a door way for contractors in children meals. They also expressed shock that chapter 2 and 3 of the NFSB had been deleted from the NFSO, throwing out the entitlements for the migrants, homeless, destitutes etc. Tamil Nadu’s Community kitchen came in for a lot of praise and its introduction as an entitlement in the Food law was imperative, they said. They also shared their despair regarding the non-serious way in which the parliament was being run, not sure whether the Government would be serious in the passage of the bill. They also supported the campaign demand that the framework needed to connect production, procurement and storage issues.
The political parties assured us that they would be moving amendments around these concerns.
The campaign members presented the following critique of the NFSO, along with their demands. The dharna was extremely spirited. The collective also paid their respects to Santosh, who died today morning, a month after she was suspiciously hit by a vehicle. Santosh was remembered as a young fiery activist from the Delhi Right to Food Campaign who was also in Aam Admi party.
The dharna had the participation of several activists including Nikhil Dey, Harsh Mander, Ashok Khandelwal, Reetika Khera, Usha Ramanathan, Wilson Bezwada, Uma Shanker.
The critique of the NFSO is as follows:
Public Distribution System (PDS):
1. It continues with a Targeted PDS, excluding 33 % of the population from accessing the PDS as a right, giving scope to large exclusion errors of the poor in the country as a whole. We demand Universal coverage.
2. The ordinance only provides for to 5kgs per person per month, thus ensuring only 166 gms of cereal per person per day, which is barely enough for two rotisa day. The ICMR has prescribed at least 14kgs for an adult and 7 kgs for child under 12. We demand an average of 10 kgs of cereals per capita per month,
3. The Bill provides only for cereals with no entitlements for the nutritional components such as pulses and edible oil required to combat malnutrition, at least a minimum of 2.5 kgs of Dal and 900 gms of oil per capita per month should be guaranteed in the NFSA.
4. Schedule 1 prescribes subsidised foodgrains for eligible households at Rs. 1( millets), 2 ( wheat) and 3( rice) for only a period of 3 years, to be raised to upto the MSP. The above stated prices need to be protected for at least a decade, before amendments.
5. The Bill does not provide any agriculture and production-related entitlements for farmers in spite of the fact that more than 60% of the people in this country are dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. We demand income guarantees and higher MSP as legal entitlements within the NFSA.
6. It allows for the back door entry of cash transfers instead of food grains by allowing for a food security allowance when food is not available, and by allowing cash transfers as a part of PDS reforms. We demand the deletion of the cash transfer and UID – Aadhar clause
Children’s Right to Food
7. It allows for the entry of private contractors and commercial interests in the supply of food in the ICDS by especially by insisting on specific norms related to Food Safety Acts and micronutrient norms (Note in Schedule 2). This needs to be deleted, instead an explicit clause prohibiting the entry of private contractors needs to be emphasised along with decentralised, local production of meals.
Maternal Entitlements.
8. This bill is still ambiguous regarding universal maternal entitlements by continuing with the conditionality of subjecting the entitlements to Central Schemes as may be framed, which may penalise children of higher order as well as deny the mother of her basic rights. We demand universal and unconditional maternity benefits.
Vulnerable People’s Entitlements.
9. It has no provisions or any special entitlements for some of the most vulnerable sections of the population – We demand that all elderly people, persons with disability, single women, homeless and migrants and destitute are covered along with feeding through community kitchens or other measures of the homeless, destitute and other sections that are most often the victims of starvation.
10. A protocol for monitoring hunger and starvation needs to be part of the NFSA.
11. All entitlements need to have portability inorder to ensure that no vulnerable person is denied food access.
Grievance Redress Mechanism
10. The Bill does not have a strong grievance redress mechanism. For the Bill to be effective there needs to be in place a strong, decentralized and independent grievance redress mechanism that includes Panchayat or block level grievance redress officers with powers to impose penalties on erring officials.
