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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

NITI Aayog's Proposal to Cut Food Subsidies Will Worsen India's Rising Hunger Problem -Sujata Gothoskar

-TheWire.in

A number of indicators have shown that India is still reeling under the adverse impact of lockdowns and job losses necessitated by the pandemic. Any cut in food subsidies will push millions into starvation.

On February 28, 2021, it was widely reported that Niti Aayog put out a paper arguing for lowering coverage in food security law in order to cut the subsidy bill. The paper prescribes curtailment of food subsidy to people from 75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas to 60% and 40% respectively. This curtailment, the Niti Aayog estimates, will result in savings of Rs 47,229 crore. This very straight proposition needs to be looked at from the point of view of several factors.

This reminded me of the experience some of us had with a lockdown helpline that we set up for a short period of 12 weeks. This was a 24 x 7 telephone helpline made possible by mostly young activists. For most of us, this was the first experience with a helpline, while many of us had participated in movements concerning different issues.

This was from the second week of April 2020 to sometime in June 2020. The calls came one after the other. Many of the callers were working people, mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, among others. But quite a few had been in the city of Mumbai for a fairly long time. Almost all of them who called us were in desperate need of rations.

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