“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
The concept of food security is thus defined in the charter of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
The UPA government at the Centre is now keen on piloting the Food Security Bill as early as possible. Discussions on the Bill are on with every State and NGOs. An EGoM (Empowered Group of Ministers) has also been constituted for this. Discussion with the Planning Commission has to be held before getting the Cabinet approval for the final version of the Bill. According to Thiru K.V.Thomas, Minister of State for Agriculture, a major point of discussion is whether the food security programme should be limited to food grains or should include other entitlements for a healthy life such as edible oil, milk, medicine and even drinking water. Pointing out that the food security component is estimated at Rs.17,000 crore annually, he said the Centre is also working towards redesigning and reforming the norms for Below Poverty Line (BPL) classification. “The experience with the Public Distribution System (PDS) is that subsided food is not reaching the intended people” he said adding “the government has major projects for food production… including a Rs.25,000-crore project.”
Now comes the welcome news that the Food Security Bill may be set for a radical overhaul. In the first meeting of the EGoM in February it was suggested, “The definition of food security should be limited to the specific issue of food grains (wheat and rice) and be delinked from the larger issue of nutritional security” which is not acceptable.
There is also a lot of discussion on the norms for definition of BPL classification. Hunger should be defined by how many people suffer it and not by how many the government is willing to pay for. The endless search for a lower BPL figure should come to an end. All three officially constituted committees have turned up estimates of poverty higher than government’s own. Even the Tendulkar Committee, closest to the governments count, raises the estimate of rural poverty to 42 percent (of course on a weak and fragile basis). The BPL Expert Group headed by N.C.Saxena raises that to around 50 per cent. While the report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector states on its first page that 836 million Indians (77 per cent of our people) live on Rs.20 a day or less. Accepting that, for instance, would mean a few thousand crores more in spending on the hungry.
What would be the cost to universalize PDS in the country – that ranks at 66 among the 88 in the Global Hungry Index, a nation whose child malnourishment record is worse than that of sub-Saharan Africa, a country now ranking 134 in the United Nations Human Development Index below Bhutan and Laos: Pravin Jha and Nilachal Acharya estimate that if rice/wheat were made available to all Indians at Rs. 3 a kilo, it would add Rs.84399 crore to the food subsidy in coming budgets. But that is less than 1.5 percent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That will not be an excessive price to pay to protect everyone from hunger. The annual ‘revenue foregone’ on account of tax exemptions is more than five lakh crore rupees, according to Finance Minister’s “Foregone Revenue Statement”, presented along with the Union Budget for 2010-11. This includes about Rs.80,000 crore of corporate income tax foregone (some of it on account of contributions) and nearly Rs.40,000 crore of foregone customs duties on “vegetables, fruits, cereals and edible oils” (imported from abroad obviously for the consumption of the rich).
The food security is restructured to 25 kg. of grain (at an unspecified price) for BPL households. The main problem with targeting is that it is both unreliable and divisive, because it prevents the emergence of a cohesive public demand for a functional PDS. And vocal demand is very important for the success of the PDS. This is one reason why the PDS works very much better in Tamil Nadu than elsewhere: everyone has a stake in it. Targeting is an ugly business and it would be particularly dangerous to ‘freeze’ the BPL-APL distinction into law. That will amount to converting the ‘poverty line’, a purely statistical benchmark, into a permanent social division. Surely, the purpose of Food Security Act is not to manufacture class conflict.
For all these reasons, serious considerations must be given to the obvious alternative – a universal PDS. Consider the potential benefits first; every family will have food assured in the house, month after month. Gone will be the days of cold hearths and empty stomachs. For those at risk of hunger, the PDS will be a lifeline. For others, it will be a form of income support and social security – valuable things to have, even when you are not hungry. The case for unversalisation builds on this ‘dual purpose of the PDS – food security and income support. It is noteworthy to recall a note by a member of the BPL Expert Group annexed to the report. He argued that in three sectors – food, healthcare and education – access had to be universal. That flows from the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution. The rights of our people are based merely on their being citizens. Not on their ability to pay. Not on their being BPL or APL Rights by definition, are universal and indivisible.
Tamil Nadu under the DMK government can legitimately take pride in ensuring food security to its people by supplying rice at Re.One a kg. to all 1.89 crore cardholders in the State under universal PDS. Four years ago, the manner in which Kalaignar M.Karunanidhi assumed office as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fifth time, carried a significant message. Minutes after the swearing-in at a jam-packed Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, he issued orders for reducing the price of PDS rice from Rs.3.50 a kg. to Rs.2, writing off Rs.7,000 crore co-operative loans of farmers and supplying two eggs a week in the noon-meal scheme. The government would be more guided by considerations of social welfare than other factors, was the message.
A noteworthy feature of the DMK government is that it has continued in the same vein in the subsequent years. This is evident from the launch of various welfare schemes and measures. In September 2008, the government came out with the scheme of providing 20 kg. rice per month per family at Re One a kg. on the occasion of birth centenary of Arignar Anna, resulting in a monthly savings of Rs.400 per month for each family, as the then open market rate of Rs.420 (at a minimum) had to be spent for purchasing 20 kg. of rice. The allocation for food subsidy for the year 2010-11 is Rs.3,750 crore. In terms of allocation of funds, the social safety net outlay went up from Rs.7,520 crore in 2005-06 to Rs.11,292.95 crore next year to Rs.15,519 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.17,858.10 crore in 2010-11.
To say that the supply of rice at Re. One per kg. to all cardholders under PDS has eradicated poverty and hunger is no exaggeration. While other states reported starvation deaths because of drought and other natural calamities and also increasing debt burden of farmers, Tamil Nadu did not report even a single case. This can be attributed to the one rupee rice scheme. Rice at such a low price has enabled even the poorest among the poor to purchase adequate quantity of rice for their families. The greatest advantage of the scheme is that in spite of shortfall in overall production during some years, there is no large scale increase in the price of rice in the open market in recent years. In fact, open market price has come down a bit thanks to the strong PDS being implemented by the State. Even in rural areas there is no shortage as every family is assured of the food grain. Rural workers have enough money to purchase other provisions too, which are being supplied at a subsidized price to the cardholders. With Rs.450/- a cardholder can purchase rice, sugar, kerosene, dhal and cooking oil for the month.
To protect the families in Tamil Nadu from the global price rise, the scheme of Special PDS has been introduced from 14.09.2007 and this not only enables the family cardholders to get toor dhal, urad dhal, palmolein oil and atta (besides sugar and kerosene) but also controls the rising prices in open market. The sale of groceries at a subsidized selling rate of Rs.50 per packet with effect from 02.08.2008 added feather to this scheme and controlled price rise in all commodities. In fact, the State is the role model for the country in successful implementation of the PDS.
The success of the scheme can be seen from the huge quantity of rice that is being handled by the Civil Supplies Department. On an average 3.17 lakh tonnes of rice are being supplied to cardholders a month as against the Central allotment of 2.96 lakh tonnes. The State could have reduced the monthly quota of 20 kg. on the pretext that it was not getting adequate quantity from the Central pool. But the State is determined to ensure adequate quantity to the cardholders and for this it has been purchasing rice from the Food Corporation of India under the open market sales scheme at a higher rate. Under the scheme, the State purchased 1.8 lakh tonnes in 2007-08, 2.5 lakh tonnes each in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and one lakh tonnes from the Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation.
The Chief Minister during his recent visit to New Delhi succeeded in getting an additional allotment of 2.5 lakh tonnes from the Centre at Rs.15.37 a kg. The effort is to ensure adequate quantity to the cardholders unmindful of increase in subsidy component. The present stock of 9.62 lakh tonnes of rice coupled with the additional allotment of 2.5 lakh tonnes will help the State to meet the demand till next year.
To ensure speedy distribution of family cards, revised system of issue of family card at district level was introduced and because of the liberal approach, 15 lakh genuine families were given cards so far. To facilitate the cardholder to get essential commodities without waiting for long time in queues, PDS part time shops have been ordered to be opened even for 150 family cards at a distance of 1.5 km. from the present shops and the shops having more than 2,000 cards have been ordered to be bifurcated. So far 2,310 new shops were opened, while the further bifurcation is going on. To eradicate the suffering of women in Tamil Nadu, the scheme of provision of LPG connection with stove was introduced on 15.08.2006 through which 17 lakh poor families were provided with LPG connection with stove at free of cost.
The nutrition impact of PDS, one may argue, is likely to be limited even in the ‘universal’ version, on young children – the crucial age group, as far as nutrition is concerned. What most children need is not more food grains, but more nutritious food (including animal protein), better breast feeding practice of healthy mothers, healthcare and related support. They need to be better at birth, which requires further interventions (important in their own right) related to women’s health and maternal entitlements. Aware of these requirements, especially of poor families, the benign Kalaignar rule provides three eggs per week to every child under Nutritious Meals Scheme besides bananas and nutritious flour balls . Pregnant women are given a financial assistance of Rs.6,000 at Rs.1,000 per month for three months each in the pre and post natal periods to keep the mothers and infants healthy at the time of delivery.
Thus food and nutrition security of the state’s citizens right from the womb stage is taken care of in the State of Tamil Nadu by the DMK government. That no one should live without enough food because of economic constraints and social inequalities in the basic goal of Food Justice. The core of Food Justice movement is the belief that what is lacking is not food, but the ‘political will’ to truly distribute food regardless of the recipients’ ability to buy. The DMK government has established its political will and ushered in Food Justice to the people of Tamil Nadu.
Now the Food Security Bill is at the top of national debate. In the earlier days, Japan was invariably cited as a role model for development and progress in every sphere. Now the fad among elite class in political, economic and other fields, (of all shades right from rabid communalist Subramanian Swamy to ‘revolutionary’ communist Prakash Karat) is to quote China, without taking into account the basic difference in the political and economic system obtaining in that country. This trend is typical of the Indian psyche reticent to acknowledge the goodness of their own kin even while hailing that of others. Quite a few academics and experts have pointed out the success of universal PDS in Tamil Nadu and its government ensuring food security to the people of the State, within the existing system in the country. On many occasions, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Tmt. Sonia Gandhi have lauded Tamil Nadu as a role model for other states for various sectors and spheres. When the Food Security Bill is being discussed at the national level, it is time for India to look inwards at Tamil Nadu and march on its way to achieve the desired goal of ensuring food security to all citizens of this country. Where there is a will, there is a way!
(18-10-10)
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