The NAC's recommendations on food security measures take heed of the fact that PDS reform is dependent on the availability of enough foodgrains. Three major elements of the United Progressive Alliance government's commitment to provide food security to the people are reforming the public distribution system (PDS), raising foodgrain productivity and production, and creating a decentralised, modern warehousing system. Ideally, the reforms in the PDS should have come first for the availability...

The Union government has decided to conduct a quality auditing of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in at least two districts in each State over the next eight months. A circular from the Ministry of Rural Development says the objective is to study whether the work carried out were properly planned, designed and executed and whether the assets created were of good quality, economical, productive and durable...

The National Advisory Council's proposals on the Food Security Bill represent a bad deal for the poor. The struggle for an effective and equitable Food Security Bill (FSB) has received a setback with the disappointing proposals put forward by the National Advisory Council. There is a disturbing disjuncture between what is being claimed and the actual implications of the proposals. Indeed it may be said that the NAC proposals create new...

Citing National Crime Bureau statistics, a Dehra Dun-based NGO has said that nearly 150-200 women are killed every year in the country after being tagged as ‘witches.' Jharkhand tops the list with 50-60 witchcraft-related murders every year, followed by Andhra Pradesh, where the number is around 30, Haryana with 25-30 and Orissa with 24-28 deaths, Rural Litigation and entitlement Kendra (RLEK) chairman Avdhash Kaushal said. According to a study conducted by RLEK,...

The goal of food for all can be achieved only through greater and integrated attention to production, procurement, preservation and public distribution. The President, in her address to Parliament on June 4, 2009, announced: “My Government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in...