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...

Amipur may be a small dot along the national highway from Patna to Nawada, but its ambitions are big. In the 50-odd households in the village, sparsely populated and rife with an uneasy quiet, most men have left for work outside Bihar. Siyaram Chauhan is the one who returned. He was rescued last month by the state government officials from a brick kiln in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich where he worked as...

Taking the first step towards implementation of the Right to Education in Uttar Pradesh, the state government will identify the ‘out-of-school’ children across 72 districts in the state. The Education department, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), will launch in August a door-to-door survey to identify the ‘out-of-school’ children in the age group of 6 and 14 years of age. In rural areas, the process will also include an undertaking by gram...

While the government is spending thousands of crores of rupees in various welfare programmes, food subsidy and is even planning a food security law for the poor, the rural development ministry said poverty has come down in magnitude. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for rural development Pradeep Jain said that irrespective of the method used (old or new), the percentage of the population below poverty...

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...