States are expected to take responsibility for this, but the Bill ignores the nutritional crisis altogether K V Thomas Minister for Food The inclusion of iron supplements, protein, dairy supplements and vegetables can be done gradually - this Bill is just the beginning The food security Bill will certainly ensure nutrition but it is the states that have to take steps for that. The draft Bill approved recently by the Group of Ministers is...

The National Advisory Council (NAC) member spoke on why the government’s food security bill is a "disappointment" National Advisory Council (NAC) member Harsh Mander spoke to Outlook on why the government’s food security bill is a “disappointment”. Excerpts: Did you expect the NAC’s draft of the food security bill to be accepted by the government? There is a huge difference between what we suggested and what has been incorporated in the government...

As it is drafted, the Bill actually deprives people, and the State governments, of existing rights on multiple counts. The Food Security Bill finalised by a Group of Ministers should not be accepted by Parliament in its present form. The overriding negative features of the proposed legislation far outweigh its positive initiatives. The framework itself is questionable since the Central government usurps all powers to decide the numbers, criteria and schemes...

-The Business Standard There are better ways to curb it than a Guest Control Order No one can deny that in a country like India, wasting food and ostentatious consumption at social gatherings are a social crime. A social movement espousing moderation in consumption habits would instantly strike a chord with a large number of Indians. Also, few would deny that India’s newly rich and upwardly mobile like to indulge in conspicuous...

  Can we agree in this country on a floor of human dignity below which we will not allow any human being to fall? No child, woman or man in this land will sleep hungry. No person shall be forced to sleep under the open sky. No parent shall send their child out to work instead of to school. And no one shall die because they cannot afford the cost of...