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...

The public distribution system (PDS) has failed to deliver on its objectives in many parts of the country. It would then seem appropriate to dismantle the system immediately and replace it with food coupons or cash transfers to the eligible households. But evidence on ground illustrate that PDS has functioned well for years in southern states such as Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with majority of the households purchasing...

The latest recommendation by the National Advisory Council on the National Food Security Act represents a significant shift in the debate on food security in the country. The discussions in the NAC suggest that the debate has largely been around the universalisation of the Public Distribution System. There also seems to have been other decisions taken by the NAC, especially on the right to food of vulnerable people and children’s right...

Dissatisfied with the recommendation of the National Advisory Council (NAC) for “phased, time-bound universalisation of foodgrains entitlements” across the country, the Right to Food Campaign has announced its decision to mobilise people for a “comprehensive” Food Security Act. “A nationwide call will be given towards this at the national convention being held in Rourkela, Orissa, from August 6,” the Campaign, a conglomeration of activists and civil society groups, said in a...

The new formula for the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) arrived at by a meeting of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) on Wednesday has attracted the criticism of activists of the Right to Food Campaign, who say it is full of ambiguities and leaves many issues wide open. They feel NAC should have set a time frame for universalisation of the public distribution system. While the council specified...