Maharashtra ended famine forever by passing an Act that deleted the word ‘famine' from all laws of the State. Maybe the government, the National Advisory Council and other assorted enthusiasts of the food security bill can learn from Maharashtra about moving towards ending hunger altogether. In 1963, the government of Maharashtra ended famine forever in the State. It did this without adding a morsel to anyone's diet. It did so simply by...
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Acting against hunger by Bhaskar Dutta
A parliamentary standing committee has recently asked the government to introduce the national food security bill in the winter session of the Lok Sabha. A promise to implement a Bill of this kind was first mooted in President Pratibha Patil's inaugural speech last year when she mentioned the government's intention to provide each family below the poverty line (BPL) with 25 kg of foodgrains a month at Rs 3 per...
More »Process Betrays the Spirit: Forest Rights Act in Bengal by Sourish Jha
The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 has created controversy in West Bengal. The gram sabha, the basic unit in the process of forest rights recognition, has been replaced by the gram sansad, denoting the village level constituency under the panchayati raj system. This has been followed by contiguous arrangements as well as initiatives which are inconsistent with the Act....
More »Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi
At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. The Supreme Court in its last hearing had...
More »Food economy’s persistent rot by Himanshu
It is not every day that we have more than 60 million tonnes of foodgrain in our granaries. It must be an achievement, considering we were living literally from ship to mouth even in the 1960s. Unfortunately, what could have been a matter of pride has turned out to be a national shame, that too the second time in this decade (the first was in 2001). As Karl Marx said,...
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