A pioneering legislation that seeks to end hunger is turning out to be yet another political football in India, where millions go without food every day. Charges and counter-charges are flying thick and fast, with the government accusing the opposition of creating obstacles in the passage of the National Food Security Bill.
India’s chief opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has upped the rhetoric, saying “it would prefer to end Congress hunger for ill-gotten money” before passing the ambitious legislation.
The legislation, that seeks to provide food to 70 percent of India’s 1.2 billion population, is expected to cost the government over $23 billion, a colossal funding commitment that could widen the budget deficit next year. The bill promises to provide wheat and rice at a fraction of the cost to around 810 million poor people in India.
Amid the growing political din, eminent economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has robustly backed the National Food Security Bill, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha, India’s upper House, over a month ago. Sen blamed the opposition for disrupting the proceedings in the parliament, saying that there were “bursting debates and killing arguments” in the house over such an important issue. Sen argued eloquently that the passage of the bill could lead to substantial enhancement of the entitlements of the poor through the public distribution system (PDS).
Food Minister K. V. Thomas moved the bill for passage and consideration over a month ago, but the uproar over issues like Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh’s death in Pakistan, the Chinese incursion and a host of scams, including millions allegedly defrauded in coal block allocation, has forced repeated adjournment of the House, stalling this crucial legislation.
Critics have slammed the legislation as a tool by the ruling Congress party to win the 2014 election. The BJP has said that it will not allow any important bill to be passed unless the government first addresses the issue of corruption. “The way the government tried to pass the Food Security Bill is an attempt to divert attention from the corruption of their ministers,” Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj told reporters. “We want a debate on important bills like the Food Security Bill and Land Acquisition Bill. But when the situation in parliament is so tense that there is a demand for the resignation of the prime minister and other ministers, trying to get the bill passed in the din is condemnable,” she added. “If the government tries to pass the bills in the din, the opposition will protest,” she added
Reacting to the opposition’s charges, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath asked the BJP not to “lecture” the Congress on corruption and made it clear that Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar would not resign. “There is no question of their resignation. Did Nitin Gadkari resign as president of the BJP? The BJP should not give us lectures on such matters. Our government knows what is to be done and if there is any indictment, we will certainly take action,” Nath said.
The bill seeks “to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.”
The bill envisages, among other things, an entitlement of 5 kgs of food grains per person per month for priority households and 35 kg per month for households below the poverty line. The combined coverage of priority and BPL households (called “eligible households”) shall extend “up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population,” says the draft text of the bill.
According to CRISIL, a global credit rating agency, the successful implementation of the Food Security Bill will leave more savings in the hands of the rural and urban poor. It would enable them to allocate more towards spending on health, education and nutritious food. The additional savings of Rs 4, 400 this year, if the bill is implemented, will equal around 8 per cent and 5 per cent of the total annual expenditure of rural and urban below poverty line (BPL) respectively. This amount is almost double the current annual spending of Rs. 2,400 of rural BPL households on health and education. Properly implemented, the food bill, says the credit agency, will not only guarantee food security for poor households but will also improve their overall quality of life by enabling them to spend more on health, education, protein-rich food and household consumables.
A World Bank report says three of the world’s poorest people are living in India. Almost 17.5% of the total population is severely malnourished, according to a report of Food and Agriculture Organization-India. The food security bill could be a possible tool to curb the malnutrition which has seen a decline over a decade from 1990 to 2012.
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