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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Provide Universal Access to Food Security, Says Rights Group to Modi

-TheWire.in

"With the additional grains under PMGKAY also set to stop after March 2022, the hunger crisis is likely to exacerbate in the country," the Right to Food Campaign said.

New Delhi: The Right to Food Campaign has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the “crisis” in income decline and severe food insecurity, especially among the economically weaker and marginalised sections of society due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) should be extended beyond this month.

The organisation said that it had conducted a survey in association with the Centre for Equity Studies and a number of other networks and organisations in December 2021 and January 2022 across 14 states, which revealed some startling findings. Around 66% of people stated that their income had decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period, while 80% reported some form of food insecurity while 25% reported severe food insecurity in terms of having to skip meals, eating less than usual and going to bed hungry due to lack of money or other resources.

The survey found that the public distribution system (PDS) and the additional grains supplied under the PMGKAY “became a lifeline and often the sole source of food”, it said.

“With the additional grains under PMGKAY also set to stop after March 2022, the hunger crisis is likely to exacerbate in the country. While the latest COVID wave is now subsiding and restrictions/ lockdowns have been lifted, the economy and peoples’ incomes and consumption are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels,” the Right to Food Campaign said in the letter.

It requested the government to continue the PMGKAY scheme, which is scheduled to end this month, until the pandemic continues and also to universalise the PDS.

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