Assignment 2

Essay on
National Food Security Act 2013 Present the current status, views of the Right of Food
Campaign and the Economists and Policy Makers and present your own assessment
A report submitted to
Prof. Jahnvi Andharia

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the course

ISPE

By
Nitish Kumar (Roll: 155081)
Section B

On
10-03-2016

Introduction
India is a land with a population of around 1.3 Billion. Every now and then people are
succumbing to death because of chronic hunger. Hunger is the number one causes of death across
the world followed by AIDS, Cancer etc. One third of the worlds hungry lives in India. The
daily incomes of approximately 830 million Indians are less than Rs 20. More than 20 crores
people fall asleep hungry. Despite economic growth 3000 children and 7000 Indians died every
day and 25 lakhs Indians die yearly because of chronic hunger. The undernourished population of
India is 212 million. Despite economic growths of 8 percent and substantial improvement in
health sectors in recent years Under-nutrition remains a chronic problem in India. Almost 50% of
Children are under weight and more than 70% of women (pregnant and lactating women in
particular) and children have nutritional deficiencies and 56% of married women are anemic.
Seven million deaths of children had been recorded yearly in India because of malnutrition, out
of which nearly 2 million died before the age of 1.Hungry people in India had outnumbered the
official Below Poverty Line people.
National Food Security Act 2013
All this has been crying for some scheme which can look after the needs of poor and poorest of
poor. So the much awaited food security act 2013 came in to existence. The National Food
Security Act 2013 received the assent of the president on 10 September 2013.The objective of
the act is to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring
access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with
dignity and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Almost two thirds of 1.2
billion people of India will get subsidized food grains which include 75 percent of rural
population and 50 percent of urban population from subsidized Targeted Public Distribution
System (PDS).The entitlements of food depend upon the types of households, 5 Kgs of food
grains per person per month are entitled for Priority households and 35kg of food grains are for
Antyodaya households. The identifications of theses household rest in the hand of state
government only. The PDS issue prices that will be charged for coarse grain like
rice/wheat/millet are 3/2/1 Rs respectively. But for the children between the age group of 6
months to 6 years will be given a free meal through Anganwadi and up to class eight or between
the of 6-14 will be given free midday meal at government schools. Under this scheme pregnant
women and lactating women during pregnancy and after six months of pregnancy are also
entitled for free meal at Anganwadi and Rs 6000 maternity benefits. In case of non-supply of
food items food security allowance will be given to beneficiaries also. The bill also has two-tier
grievances redressal machinery i.e. District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO) and State Food
Commission. It contains three schedules which prescribed issues price for PDS, Nutritional
standards for mid-day meal, take home rations and related entitlements, revitalizing of
agriculture, procurement and storage of food grains etc. The NFSA also integrated many welfare
schemes like (TPDS), integrated child development services (ICDS) wheat-based nutrition
program and mid-day meal (MDM) schemes

Current Status of National Food Security Act 2013

Since September 2013 when National Food Security Act 2013 had been enacted 25 states and
union territories had so far rolled out the law. Only 11 states and Union Territories are on the list
that had so far not implemented the food act (Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jammu &
Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar, Gujarat, Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh). The Union Food
Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had extended the roll out deadline to further six months which is in
addition to previously two extended deadlines. This time extension had come up with a covenant
that if the states would not implement the law within stipulated time then supply of subsidized
food grains to Above Poverty Line (APL) will be stopped. But hurried implementation without
all requisite preparation in some state had created some major problems. Uttrakhand had to roll
back the implementation Bihar had to face with distribution problems. Under the NFSA over 11
crore households with a total beneficiaries of 53 crore had till now being allocated highly
subsidized food grains at Rs 2 per kg wheat and Rs 3 per kg rice. Use of information technology
like computerization and use of technological device like dispenser at public distribution shops
or ration shops to validate beneficiaries had helped to bring up 61.43 lakh bogus, duplicate or
ineligible ration cards in last two years, thus containing the leakage, appropriation and misuse of
food grains in the PDS system resulting in saving of Rs4, 200 crore. The offtake of food grains in
the17 states/UTs under new act has increased compared to previous PDS.
The digitization of beneficiary database had been completed in 33 states/ UTs. So far, 92% of the
records of been digitized. This information of beneficiary is also available in the public domain.
Online platform has also been developed in 17 states/ UTs that has been used to allocate food
grains and entire supply chain has also been computerized in 9 states/ UTs. Grievance redressal
systems were also set up in all states. Pilot project of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) was also
implemented in Chandigarh and Puducherry .It helps in leakage free distribution of food grains
also food subsidy is directly transferred to the beneficiary account.
Point of sale (POS) kiosk was also installed in the PDS. That captures the data of beneficiary and
authenticates it while also store the data of quantum of food grains given to the beneficiary
family. In total 59,500 shops has been operational with POS devices. Aadhar Card linking
mechanism is also in progress in many of the states. So far 18% beneficiaries have been seeded
with the Aadhaar number.

The Right of Food Campaign

The right of food campaign has started in mid-2001 to bring up the issues of instead of
unprecedented stocks of food grains in India drought prone areas does not get adequate relief.
Article 21 of constitution talks about right to life and government is morally duty to protect the
life of people so food is the right of every citizen. Later the charter of demands of campaign
includes (1) National Employment Guarantee Act, (2) Universal Mid-Day meals in primary

schools, (3) universalization of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) for children
under the age of six, (4) effective implementation of all nutrition-related schemes, (5) revival and
universalization of the public distribution system, (6) social security arrangements for those who
are not able to work. Although al the demands have not been met yet but some of the demands
had been materialized. Like MNREGA has been passed unanimously by parliament in 2005
which guarantees 100 days wage employment for rural households which are of unskilled type.
In April 2004 cooked following the Supreme Court order mid-day meal have been introduced in
all primary schools.
It helps in bringing down the barriers of accessibility of food to the poor which in spite of
entitled to get food cant receive because of social discriminations and corruption. Its a
campaign against hunger and malnutrition by highlighting the weak links in machineries leakage
and corruption. Although PDS is put in place to distribute food grains and most of these centers
are held by private players which look after their interests. They siphon away grains and also
socially strong people also entrenched most of the food grains. Although strict accounting
practices were followed in PDS but this all seems to be on paper only and small chunk of grains
get in hands of poor. It also does social audits, death due to hunger and small scale local surveys
to raise the issues before government. Because of RFC children are able to get at least one time
foods in primary school which also helps them to get enrolled in school. Hence increasing the
literacy level of the people. MNREGA also helped them out to get employment. All this is
somehow related to the campaign so campaign plays out an important role in turning around the
faith of poor people. It acts as a media for the poor people. Raising the concern issues and
resolving the issues has made the campaign most effective. The role that should be played by
states has been well discharge by RFC. It also pointed out that nutritional security and local
procurement should be done in order to take the interest of farmers
Economist Views on NFSA 2013
The food security act ensures that rice/wheat/millet will be sold at price of 3/2/1 Rs respectively.
It will led to a total cost of around Rs 125,000 crore annually whereas current expenditure is
around Rs 67,310 crore only. That will be used to procure 62 millions of aforementioned
food grain to distribute among 67% of the population . Addition burden will add up by
providing at least Rs 6000 to pregnant and lactating women. It will costs around 1.1% of GDP. It
will add up to fiscal deficit which was running at 4.8% at that point of time. Rise in fiscal deficit
will devalue the Indian currency which will increase in the import bill of essential commodities
like petroleum, electronics and coal prices, causing inflation in the country. There will also be
increased in disposable income of people because poor spends 50-60% of their money on food
items which they will save. It will increase demand for some other items causing further rise in
prices of goods and services which may lead to inflations in longer run. Contrary to that an
additional 30crore people will get cheaper food so consumption of other items will increase
which will give boost to sluggish economy. The farmers will also get higher price for food grains
because demand for food grain will increase substantially leading to increase in supply

eventually to equilibrium price .Therefore act also accrues benefit to farmer also in an indirect
ways. Therefore economic policies that will be rolled out by RBI have to follow some astute
measures. The inventory holding cost for storing food grains in warehouses will come down
because of the distribution of major amount of grains. Although it will make easily accessibility
of food grains but problem of income generation for their livelihood will still be a recurrent
problem.
Policy Makers Views on NFSA 2013
Policy makers said that it is one of the largest welfare schemes in the world. It has integrated
many of the scatter schemes like mid-day meal scheme so that inclusiveness of all the needy
people can be done. It will do away with the inefficacies in old PDS .The BPL families which
has been left behind in the old PDS system will be bring in which will increase additional 30
crores people. The problem of hunger and malnutrition will be well taken care by this scheme.
Grains that were diverted in the open market in old system will be stopped because of NFSA.
Personal views on NFSA 2013
India is ranked 55th in 2014 in Global Hunger Index right behind Nepal (39) and Sri Lanka
(44).Even though India is economically sound then these neighbor countries but our country is
still plagued with malnutrition and chronic hunger. So what are the benefits of 8-9 % GDP when
20% of the people are sleeping hungry? May be food security act wont be subscribe by many
leaders and business tycoons and it may be considered as populist measures which will add on
financial burden to India. But in my opinion whether India needs it or not but Indians desperately
need it and there is no second opinion on this .Taking the cognizance of the citizens where 3000
children died and around 20 crores people sleep hungry every day. So it is a national shame upon
us .People residing in India that are mired in this very endemic diseases this act seems to be
exceedingly important to get our Indians out of it. Because of hungriness economic will affected
very much
Hungry reduces Productivity and efficiency: If people are not fed properly they will be
undernourished and they wont be able to perform the desired outcome .It will lead to decrease in
efficiency hence GDP of our country will also get reduced because output is directly proportional
to GDP.
Hungry effects mental health and education: Nation Family Health Survey0f 2004-5 had
come up a figure that 40% of the children below six years are under weight. Cognitive ability,
rationality, logical intelligence is all as a function of healthy mind and healthy minds come from
healthy food itself but if children are malnutrition these reduces these attributes. All the way our
prime minister is talking about to make India the skill capital of world but if this situation
persists over a longer horizon the dreams will be shattered in the upcoming years. So feeding the
people with quality food is need of the hour because it will also lead to the strategic development
of nation as well. Its been 68 years of independence if this would have been eradicated on its

own then it wont be a major problem now. But this needs the government intervention to root
out the problems. So act itself is very rational.
Hungry give impetus to crime: There is innumerable number of instances where people had
committed crime only for the bread. Even French revolution had started on the backdrop of
scarcity of food. Even if hungry makes the people weak but it also makes people vulnerable to
commit crime. So in order to fill up their stomach people do crime. So any how sooner or later it
should be curtailed. Although we had wasted lots of time in coming up with the act but its never
too late for anything.
Hungry may lead to social instability: As mentioned earlier French revolution because of food
only, Bengal famine of 1943 is also an example of non-supply of rice leading to approximately 3
million people. Therefore country like India, 20% of people is vulnerable and not getting proper
food. There can be a situation where people will lose it consciences and temperament and will
wage a war against its own government. All this can be conducive to instability.
On the other hand it will make people lethargic also. People will keep themselves away from
work as they are getting food grains at a very low price.
But the major problem here is the channelizing of food grains to the needy. With rampant
corruption in the government machinery it seems to be a formidable task at hand. But with
launch of scheme like Pradhna Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY),Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT)
and Digital India. India has reinforced the act with iron rods and pillars. Now the corruption at
broker level will get mitigated and benefits will trickle down to poor people. So implementation
is not an issue now. Also lots of food grains get wasted during storage in FCI warehouse/silos
and India having a surplus food grains also with advent of scientific farming technology
production yield will increase in the near future so its good to have an act now. We are also a
growing economy with GDP of around 8% so affordability wont be a problem and fiscal deficit
has been decreasing over the past 4 years from 4.5% to 3.5 %.All we need to focus upon to
increase the productivity of our working force which are the major asset of India and this can be
done through proper access of food at affordable price.
Conclusion
The NFSB will be a radical path breaker in the history of India if government will be able to
channelize the distribution, curtailed the corruption and reduce leakage through proper putting up
proper machineries in place. The government should put in proper check and balances to look
after the quality and nutritional level of food. Transparency and accountability should also be
taken up by local bodies. There must also be yardstick to measure the effectiveness and
implementation of the scheme so that right strategy can be formed. Statistical data should also be
put in place for future references
(Word Count 2709)

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