Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/food-security-with-free-rotis-ajit-ranade-24538.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Food security with free rotis -Ajit Ranade | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Food security with free rotis -Ajit Ranade
-Mumbai Mirror


Instead of selling highly subsidised rice and wheat, we need to get food into hungry stomachs.

The level of development of a country can be measured in many different ways. You could use average income of every person (i.e. GDP divided by population), or you can use average spending. You can count the number of millionaires or billionaires. You can count number of mobile connections, or cars on the road. Or you could measure air and water quality. You could measure literacy rates or health indicators.

A quality of life index can be constructed using some or all of these indicators. But there is one metric, which best captures the wellbeing of society. It is called the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) at age one. This is the number of kids who die before the age of 1 per 1000 childbirths. If this number is low, it means society is doing well. It does not matter if incomes are low, or if there are not enough toilets or roads. IMR is the most important metric.

India has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest IMRs in the world. Its record is worse than neighbouring Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, and also much of sub Saharan Africa. The national IMR is around 44, but in some states or districts, it is as high as 96.

Another number called U5MR, which measures kids who die before reaching their fifth birthday, is 59 per 1000, one of the highest in the world. This means 18 lakh kids die before age 5 annually, mostly because of avoidable reasons like diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia. Much of this is caused by malnutrition. Thus adequate food, with elementary hygiene and clean drinking can easily bring down India's IMR.

It was because of the Supreme Court's intervention that the fundamental right to be free from hunger and malnutrition, was given teeth in the form of court supervised program of action. One outcome was the nationwide mid-day meal scheme, providing hot cooked lunch to every child in primary and upper-primary class. We have more than 100 million kids in school, and India's mid-day meal scheme is the largest in the world. It aims at achieving the twin objectives of higher school attendance and adequate nutrition for the kids. It also achieves some social cohesion, as upper and lower caste kids eat together. Private initiatives such as Akshaya Patra and Naandi Foundation together serve around three million kids daily, mostly based on private donation and supplemental government funds.

The Food Security Bill (FSB) passed by this parliament was the culmination of the right to food campaign, and was supported by all political parties. It has many critics. Even the food minister is worried at its impact on fiscal deficit, and whether farmers would lose incentive to produce rice and wheat, and would simply prefer to buy at Rs 1 or Rs 2 a kilo.

However, the fundamental problem of reaching the stomach of every hungry person remains. Converting rice or wheat to edible food requires fuel and a stove (chulhaa). The time has come to think of a radical solution in the form of low cost protein and spice fortified roti, with a shelf life of about one week, which can be distributed free to all. The cost per three rotis can be kept below Rs 1 easily. Such a scheme was described by Sanjeev Aga in an article recently. Calling this roti a "Zapata", Aga estimated that to reach 63 crore hungry Indians (the official estimate) the cost would be around Rs 1.6 lakh crore, still cheaper than the estimated total cost of FSB.

Of course it would require supply chain management, efficiency and innovation - all of which has been used to the hilt by Akshay Patra and Naandi. The main insight is that we need to focus on ready to eat nutritious low cost food, not just distribution of subsidized foodgrain.