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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A bound-to-fail positive effort-Panini Anand

A bound-to-fail positive effort-Panini Anand

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published Published on Mar 22, 2012   modified Modified on Mar 22, 2012

THE DEBATE on the National Food Security Bill, tabled in parliament three months ago, is on full swing. Economists from both sides are arming their arguments with facts and logic. The people who would benefit of this legislation are in a dilemma. This prompts the consideration that the experts must try to see the issue from the ground reality of food security and its beneficiaries.

Undoubtedly, it’s a great and historical effort. In a country where malnutrition and hunger are more widespread than many African countries, indeed we need an effective and practical piece of legislation to ensure food for all. The National Food Security Bill (NFSB) is a big step forward, but there are many deficiencies which may make it a bound-to-fail security.

Many urban households are covered under this bill. There are provisions for drought-hit areas. Moreover, it will put all the schemes related to food security in a legal framework. There are some useful provisions for grievance redress to ensure accountability. But the overall analysis of this bill doesn’t project the positive picture we expect from it.

There are many problems with the bill. The first issue is the artificial and impractical division of population into three segments — priority, general and excluded. There is no clarity in the draft as to on what criteria a person would be allocated to one or the other category. So far, BPL identification attempts have resulted in failure. In many cases, we have seen that the rich people in villages have got themselves listed as BPL families whereas lakhs of poor households are still struggling to get on the BPL list. This is very basic flaw of the present bill: the lack of clarity in identification of socio-economic groups. And if identification is flawed, nothing will go right.

This bill is also silent on the issue of malnutrition and nutrition security. Moreover, ready-to-eat food will be considered as hot, cooked food. This would promote the contract system and might result in big scams. Schemes like midday meal will suffer due to these provisions.

Another big problem with the bill’s understanding of food security is the exclusion of drinking water and sanitation from it. Food security without drinking water and sanitation is like a half-naked body in chilly weather. It’s very important to consider them as an essential and integral part of food security.

It is also surprising that the farmers who grow grain for the entire nation and exports are ironically kept out of this draft. There is no provision for them except in the form of some weak ‘enabling provisions’.

The dominance and control in the hands of central government is another issue which undermines the powers and importance of states. According to the bill, all powers and control are in the hands of the centre; they will decide what to add and what to exclude. Not only is the move undemocratic and doubtful, but it directly affects state-run food schemes and programmes too.

According to the bill, the allocation of food grain will reduce in states like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir. Tamil Nadu provides 20kg of rice free to every household every month. This universal public distribution sysytem-type state scheme may not survive the NFSB because of the lower allocations of food grains. Moreover, the bill focuses on ‘targeting’ only the beneficiary whereas the present scheme is universal and doesn’t discriminate in food distribution.

It’s important for the centre to understand that they should show a strong political will towards an effective NFSB rather than participating in some futile practice to ensure food security.

MGNREGA was a great success and it helped Congress regain the power. The NFSB might work the same magic, if it is amended into a strong, practical and effective legislation.

Tehelka, 20 March, 2012, http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.asp?filename=Ws200312bound.asp


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