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Government hides more than it reveals in the Food Security Bill by Gargi Parsai

The uncertainty over the Lokpal Bill has overshadowed an equally significant National Food Security Bill, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week and is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The Bill has been in the eye of the storm over targeted coverage of beneficiaries as against universalisation in view of the immense ramifications for the aam aadmi , struggling with rising food prices.

In the second term of the United Progressive Alliance, the Food Ministry has been totally consumed with the drafting of the Bill which has been routed through the National Advisory Council, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council and the Empowered Group of Ministers on Food.

To understand whether the government is sincere about addressing the issues or has rushed through the Bill with an eye on the coming elections in five States, certain aspects in the draft legislation need to be highlighted.

In a way, the draft Bill hides more than it reveals. For one, it goes back to the initial draft of the Food Ministry that said that the subsidy in diesel and kerosene will be reduced to pay for the food subsidy that will go up by more than Rs. 30,000 crore to provide grains to the poor at 2011 census projections. Recently Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said as much.

Secondly, the finalised Bill draws from the initial draft that suggested that provision of subsidised foodgrains to the Above the Poverty Line population (re-named `general') will be on “as and when available” basis. The new Bill also categorically links the provision of cheap foodgrains to reforms in the Public Distribution System, and, from the date to be notified by the Centre. .

Identification of beneficiaries

The identification of beneficiaries has not been done. We do not know yet who the beneficiaries will be. A socio-economic caste census designed by the Rural Development Ministry is underway and is expected to take some shape after March 2012. No such exercise has been undertaken to identify the urban beneficiaries, even for the ‘priority' groups.

Many of the poor who are already on the rolls are jittery as the Antyodaya Anna Yojna that covered the “poorest of the poor” has been subsumed in the ‘priority' households and the fear is that the new census has certain parameters that may end up excluding more people than including.

After the fiasco of assessing the poor on the basis of their daily per capita spending (Rs. 26 in rural and Rs. 32 per person in urban areas), the Planning Commission and the Rural Development Ministry jointly declared that “poverty caps” shall be removed. One hears of a new technical committee being set up to go into the recommendation of the Suresh Tendulkar panel for estimating the ‘poverty line.'

Be that as it may, the draft Bill provides coverage for up to 75 per cent of the population including not less than 46 per cent ‘priority' in rural areas and up to 50 per cent, including 26 per cent ‘general,' in the urban areas. As mentioned earlier, the ‘general' category will get subsidised foodgrains at a higher rate whenever the Central government notifies so.

Another significant aspect is that the Bill provides for supply of 7 kg per month of subsidised foodgrains per person in an identified household. In doing so, the government has moved away from the provision of 35 kg grain per family/household per month that is currently being given to (about 6.5 crore) Below Poverty Line families. So, if a ‘priority' household has three members, it will get only 21 kg of subsidised grains, no more. To the ‘general' families, at least 3 kg will be given per person at 50 per cent of the minimum support price.

States to share costs

Significantly, the Bill provides for the State governments to share all costs with the Centre. The costs of providing support in every scheme, be it nutritional support to identified pregnant women and lactating mothers or to children in schools or to ‘priority' and ‘general' households shall be shared between the Centre and the States. No quantum of sharing has been provided for in the Bill and shall be notified later. Already the Tamil Nadu government has declared its intention to opt out of the Bill.

The supply of foodgrains shall be linked to targeted PDS reforms, including introduction of schemes such as cash transfer or food coupons and leveraging ‘Aadhar' for biometric identification of the beneficiaries “for proper targeting.” While this may be a good thing to weed out bogus ration cards or duplication of beneficiaries, it can also deprive deserving beneficiaries in case of any failure of system or technology. Its operation in villages that have no electricity is to be seen.

In the present fluid situation, when streamlining of the PDS is not visible, there is a scarcity of storage facility, the number of beneficiaries is not settled, identification of beneficiaries is not done, foodgrain production levels have not enhanced significantly and irrigation systems are lagging, the government seems to be rushing through the Bill.

And this is visible in the Force Majeure (greater force) Clause 51 in which lies the sting. The clause absolves the Central or State governments of performing any of their obligation or giving compensation to any party under the Act “when such failure of supply is due, either directly or indirectly, to force majeure conditions, such as war, flood, drought, fire, cyclone, earthquake or any act of God,” the clause says.

In a country where 60 per cent agriculture is rain-fed, this clause signals the “end of the contract” between the government and the beneficiaries in case of crop failure owing to erratic/delayed monsoon. So what is this Food Security Bill about?