If Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s indication that 35 kg of foodgrain a family and the Tendulkar committee estimate of 8.3 crore BPL households could be the basis of the National Food Security Act, then the government’s bill adds up to a staggering Rs 63,750 crore a year. At 25 kg a BPL family, it is slightly less at Rs 54,200 crore, which is roughly the food subsidy...
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Needed: a food security law by Praful Bidwai
The UPA government has betrayed its promise of inclusive growth over the years as a result of which poverty ratios have remained extremely high despite rapid economic growth, says Praful Bidwai. The new National Advisory Council must act urgently on nutritional security and public healthcare, he adds. The reconstitution of the National Advisory Council under Sonia Gandhi, announced by India’s United Progressive Alliance government, is good news. The original NAC died...
More »Blinkered vision by Vandana Prasad
If recent indicators are anything to go by – the failure to keep food prices down, the proposed National Food Security Act, the failure to ensure even minimum wages to construction workers at projects for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, to recount a few – it seems the country has given up even the pretence of caring about its children or their crippling, unbudging state of malnutrition. Leaders,...
More »A right denied by Jayati Ghosh
How serious is the United Progressive Alliance government about enacting food security legislation that gives every citizen in the country the right to adequate food? On the face of it, the government appears to be extremely serious. After all, ensuring the right to food was a major election promise of the Congress party that leads the UPA; it has been frequently mentioned in various official pronouncements of this government; and...
More »Chronic Hunger by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
Last summer, about 150 families of Kachan village in Jharkhand’s Palamu district decided to pool funds to repair their only community tube well. A drought, the worst in many years, had dried up two ponds; there were no wells around; and the tube well had been dysfunctional for a year. It took a lot of hardship and one whole month for them to put together what the mechanic had asked...
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