NAC wants subsidised food for 75% of Indians
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COMMENTS 
The National Advisory Council has worked out a compromise formula for the Food Security Act keeping in mind budgetary constraints and foodgrain availability. Under the formula, 90% of rural households and 50% of urban households -- that’s nearly 800 million people’-- will have access to subsidised food
In its final recommendations on the proposed Food Security Act, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) acknowledged the twin constraints of budget and availability of foodgrain by stopping short of “universalisation” of a government-guaranteed right to subsidised food.
“We originally started with a proposal of near universalisation, with just 10% of people at the top in rural India being excluded. This was challenged on grounds of both budgetary and foodgrain shortfall. Given that, the NAC’s recommendations are much better than what the government had originally proposed, especially the 1/2/3 formulation for priority households,” NAC member Aruna Roy said.
However, NAC member and development economist Jean Drèze issued a dissent note saying that “an opportunity (had) been missed to initiate a radical departure in this field. The NAC proposals (are) a great victory for the government -- they allow it to appear to be doing something radical for food security, but it is actually more of the same”.
According to Drèze, the NAC “began its deliberations on a visionary note” but later came under a lot of pressure to accommodate constraints imposed by the government. The final result, he says, is “a minimalist proposal that misses many important elements of food security”.
Although some in the NAC said food security should be extended to all in the country, not just those deemed poor, the government claimed this would double its food subsidy bill. So, a compromise was worked out and it was decided that 75% of households would be covered. This will now take the food subsidy bill to almost Rs 80,000 crore.
The NAC is of the view that at least 75% of the country should get subsidised grain. This is further broken down to 90% of all households in rural India, and 50% in urban areas. It has recommended to the government that the programme be rolled out from the next financial year. And that all beneficiaries are covered by March 31, 2014, with a “reformed” public distribution system (PDA) as the vehicle for rolling out the programme.
The NAC will now examine proposals for PDS reform. Options being considered include decentralised procurement and storage; de-privatisation of PDS outlets as in Chhattisgarh where these are run by self-help groups and other village bodies.
Apart from these, the NAC will also consider the possibility of doorstep delivery of grain to PDS outlets; revision of PDS commissions; use of ICT including end-to-end computerisation of the PDS, full transparency of records and use of smart cards and biometrics subject to successful pilots.
The NAC’s recommendations are expected to be considered by the Union Cabinet, and then introduced in Parliament as the National Food Security Bill.
The NAC has decided to set aside the below the poverty line (BPL) criteria. Instead, it has suggested two broad categories -- “priority” and “general” -- eligible for foodgrain entitlement under the proposed food security law. Both these categories will have to be defined by the government.
For its part, the advisory panel quantified the two categories based on the Tendulkar Committee report. Accordingly, the “priority” category is estimated to include 46% of all households in rural areas, and 28% in urban. The “general” category is 44% of all rural households and 22% of urban.
As regards the entitlement, the Council has proposed that the “priority” category receive a monthly entitlement of 35 kilos of foodgrain at a subsidised price of 1 per kg for millets, 2 per kg for wheat and 3 per kg for rice.
The “general” category, on the other hand, will get a monthly entitlement of 20 kilos of foodgrain at a price which will not exceed 50% of the minimum support price (MSP). It has been suggested that the minimum coverage and entitlement as well as prices should remain unchanged at least until the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan in 2017.
Other important components of the NAC’s food security bill are legal entitlements for child and maternal nutrition, as well as for community kitchens and programmes to feed the destitute and vulnerable groups.
Suggestions have been made for revitalising agriculture, diversifying commodities available under the PDS, and ensuring universal access to safe water and proper sanitation. The NAC has also recommended universalising primary healthcare, extending nutrition and health support to adolescent girls, strengthening the school health programme, the programme for Vitamin A, iodine and iron supplementation, and the national programme for creches.
Source: The Indian Express, October 24, 2010
The Hindu, October 24, 2010
http://www.ndtv.com, October 2010