The UPA 2 Government has taken four years after
it announced its intention to legislate a right to food to actually pass the
National Food Security Act. This Bill has been brought forward at a time when
there are 80 million tonnes of grains in the government godowns and increased
public action highlighting widespread hunger. This was an opportune time to
bring in a comprehensive Food Security Act which addressed issues of expanding
production, decentralised procurement and storage and universal distribution
along with special measures to reach out to the most vulnerable. However the
government has missed this opportunity by passing a minimalistic Bill.
While almost every political party raised
issues related to guarantee of income for farmers, assuring
Minimum Support Price, universal coverage under the Public Distribution System(PDS),
including pulses and oil in PDS, the necessity of 14 kgs of foodgrains,
scrapping cash transfers, community kitchens, removal of contractors, the
absurdity of the poverty lines, protecting small and marginal farmers during
the debate in Parliament, unfortunately none of the amendments related to these
got passed. The millions of poor and food insecure in the country who have been
waiting for a comprehensive food Bill may get some small consolation from the
fact that hunger, malnutrition and state’s obligation towards addressing this
was discussed and debated in Parliament for many hours.
There are some positive aspects in the Bill,
which have enormous potential to transform the PDS, especially in poor states.
Firstly, though per head entitlements have been reduced from 7 kgs per head to
5 kgs(which amounts to the measly amount of 166 gms per
day per adult), at
least the numbers covered have been increased. In West Bengal, the population
to be covered is 601.64 or 65.88% (463.31 lakhs in rural areas or 74.47% of the
rural population, and 138.53 lakhs or 47.55% of urban population). The Act has
promised to continue to provide the existing allocation of 38.49 lakh tonnes of food-grains to West
Bengal at the reduced price of Rs.3 for rice , Rs.2 for wheat and Rs.1 for
millets.
This would immediately mean a saving of Rs. 400-500 crores for the West Bengal Government on its Rs 2 rice programme. This money could then be used to cover increasing numbers of rural poor , starting with 90% coverage in the poorest districts. The experience of other states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has shown that expanding coverage improves the PDS and minimises exclusion errors.
Secondly, rather than having opaque and
complicated procedures for identifying the poor, what is now possible is to
exclude the rich and cover the rest of the population with uniform
entitlements. If simple exclusion criteria such as keeping out those who are
income tax payees, have regular jobs, own four-wheelers etc. are devised; then
this can minimise exclusion errors to a large extent. In the current PDS
system, about half of those who are poor do not even have BPL cards. However,
since the Bill remains silent on the identification criteria, there is a danger
that the West Bengal Government may not adopt the exclusion approach, but will
come up with some messy system of identification of beneficiaries under the
Act. The response of Delhi and Rajasthan, where the provisions of the Bill are
being rolled out first show that state governments will do just this.
The other positive aspect of the Bill is in
relation to women’s empowerment. The ration cards will be in the name of women.
Universal maternity entitlements will be provided to all pregnant and lactating
women, to the tune of Rs. 6000 over six months. This recognises women as workers
and their right to wage compensation for maternity leave in order to
exclusively breastfeed the child.
As breast feeding has also been recognised as a
right, this also means that the Government and employers will have to provide
all work sites with women workers with crèche facilities and breaks for breast
feeding.
However, the NFSB fails in its vision by not
being ambitious enough and only paying lip service to the right to food. It
provides for minimalistic entitlements whereas what was needed was a complete
re-imagining of the food economy in the country by keeping the small and
marginal farmer who is producing food and the most vulnerable person who needs
food at its centre.
The first gap in this Bill is that there is no
provision for farmers – they are the ones who will be the backbone of the food
bill and have to be supported by adequate MSPs, decentralised procurement,
incentives for production and so on. The Act should have put in place a
mechanism for procurement from all states in the country, with timely payments
and direct purchase from small farmers ensuring that they get remunerative
prices.
Second, to make a dent on malnutrition it is
not enough to give cereals, that too just 5kgs – for nutrition at least pulses
and oil is required even though it is already being done by many state
governments like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh. Third, there are no
special provisions for community kitchens in urban areas and destitute feeding
programmes – these were essential to reach the last person, the destitute, the
homeless, the aged and the disabled. Again Chhattisgarh Delhi and Tamil Nadu have
already started cheap canteens in cities. Fourth, there are no clear guidelines
to keep out commercial interests from taking advantage of the enhanced budgets
that will now become available for the schemes that fall under the Bill. Fifth,
the Force Majeure clause which exempts the Governments from liabilities during
disasters has remained. Sixth, the replacement of food grains by a dangerous cash
transfer system still remain a distinct possibility.
We would especially like to draw attention the
grievance redressal mechanisms, which are not strong enough with low penalties
and no effective system at the village and Panchayat level. It is here that the
State Government, with its power to formulate rules can take a strong role, if
it strengthens vigilance committees at all levels and sets up mechanisms for
transparency and quick and effective grievance redressal at block and Panchayat
levels, with strong penalties. In fact, it is only this that will ensure that
food grains do not continue to be siphoned off by the nexus of bureaucracy,
local political leaders and ration dealers. The State government should also
take a lesson from the 2007 ration riots to understand that food remains a
sensitive issue, which requires strong action and good governance.
The response in the mainstream media that
blames the Food Bill for the fall in the Rupee and the problems in the economy
are not based on facts and only point to the strong lobbies in our country
against allowing any spending for the poor. Let
us not forget that the additional expenditure on PDS because of this Act is
only around 0.25% of the GDP, while over Rs. 5 lakh crores (~5% of GDP) of
revenue is forgone by the government each year, mostly to favour business and
corporate interests.
The NFSA is only a modest first step towards
addressing hunger and malnutrition in the country. The Right to Food campaign
will continue its struggle for comprehensive interventions for the food
security of all. We will have work to ensure that the Rules are made in such
manner that the entitlements provided in the Act are further strengthened. In
each state, we have to be vigilant to ensure that there is a proper
identification of beneficiaries.
The Parliamentarians have to be held
accountable to the statements they made on the floor of the House. Parties that
introduced amendments to expand and strengthen the Bill must include these in
their manifestos for the coming Lok Sabha elections. In West Bengal, where both
the ruling TMC and the opposition Left Front have favoured universalisation,
inclusion of pulses and oils, steps in favour of farmers etc. we hope that
rising above narrow political differences , all parties will work towards
making the right to food a complete right, instead of the fractured right it
has been made in the Central Act.
