-The Hindu Business Line/ NetworkIdeas.org With India experiencing a severe second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing decentralized lockdowns, a crisis of loss of jobs and livelihoods and resulting hunger is being reported from across the country. A reluctant central government has, therefore, been forced to revive the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), to distribute 5 kilograms of free foodgrain per person per month to the approximately 80 crore...

-The Hindu Business Line/ NetworkIdeas.org The disease ripping through the country is only one of the destructive forces affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians. The dramatic increase in hunger is another. Like devastation wrought by the current surge in coronavirus infections, this too is the result of policy failure and official callousness. It is already causing immense suffering among affected people and will have serious repercussions on their...

-The Indian Express The new version of the scheme does not, however, include an important component of last year's PM-GKAY – 1 kg pulses per month free to each household under the NFSA. With thousands of migrants headed back to their towns and villages amid lockdown-like restrictions in several big cities, the government on Friday said it was restarting the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) to provide additional 5 kg...

The National Food Security Act 2013 guarantees maternity benefit to the tune of Rs. 6,000/- per child by the Central Government for pregnant women and lactating mothers, barring those who are already availing such benefits while being in regular employment with the Central Government or State Governments or Public Sector Undertakings or under other laws. The NFSA 2013 also legally guarantees free meals for every pregnant woman and lactating mother...

-Newsclick.in The paper by economists Jean Dreze, Reetike Khera, and Anmol Somanchi is based on the findings of the Jaccha Baccha Survey (JABS), a survey of pregnant and nursing women in rural India conducted in June 2019. A large majority of Indian women are still deprived of maternity benefits they are entitled to under the National Food Security Act, 2013, according to a recent paper by economists Jean Dreze, Reetike Khera, and...