India has always been a country where the main occupation of
the people has been agriculture. Still, India remains a country second only to
the United States in the amount of land under cultivation. With such a great
statistic it is expected that it should be able to at least feed its own
population, if not be a net exporter of food. But it is not so. We are far from
secure in terms of food. A litigation in the Supreme court of India prompted it
to reprimand the government on the state of food security in the country. While
huge amounts of food grains rot every year, still our country has the dismal
record of having the highest number of malnourished people in the world.
The National food security bill (NFSB) which has been
presented by the UPA government, and suggestions for amendments have been made
by the standing committee is a good step. It mandates the government to provide
guaranteed food to 75% of rural households and 50% of urban households. These households
would be further divided into priority households and general households. While
priority households will be entitled to 7kg rice/wheat per member, the general household
will be entitled to 3kg of the grain per member. The bill also provides
provision for hot cooked meals for the homeless, migrants and destitude. A special
provision has been added for mandated nutritional meals for pregnant women. It would
be worthwhile here to mention that the root cause for the malnourishment of a
child happens when the mother does not get enough nutrition during the
pregnancy. This provision of the NFSB seeks to correct that.
The standing committee on food has made certain suggestions
to this bill. While certain suggestions have been made like doing away with the
prioritizing of the households, and alternatively 5kg of grain to be provided
to 75% of rural and 50% of urban households have been made, which are laudable,
certain other suggestions like doing away with the hot cooked nutritious meal
for the homeless, migrant, destitude and the provision for the nutritious meal
for pregnant women, should not be accepted. The government should use its own
discretion and be selective of which provisions of the standing committee are
to be accepted.
Another criticism of this bill is that it does not address
the root causes of food insecurity. While sweeping subsidies for food are being
suggested, nothing is being done to nip the problem in the bud. The practices
like biodiverse farming and watershed construction can really help a lot, they
should be implemented in all states. The stores for organic farming products in
Maharashtra should be an example for all. Decentralized farming and growing nutritive
crops like millets should be practiced. Such practices will not only enable us
to achieve the aim of food security, it will also make our farming more
sustainable.
To sum up, a country having 217 million malnourished people
is in dire need for food security. Although the NFSB is a good start, it is not
enough. It should be supplemented with practices which perpetuate sustainable
farming which does not deteriorate the quality of the soil. And the government
should establish transparent systems like a computerized and modernized PDS.
All transactions should happen in the most transparent manner under the watch
of CCTV cameras. We need food security and we need it now. If we are ever to make advantage of our
demographic dividend, we need to to feed it first.
