FOOD SECURITY

Introduction
Food security has been a major concern in India. According to UN-India, there are nearly 195
million undernourished people in India, which is a quarter of the world’s hunger burden.
Roughly 43% of children in India are chronically undernourished.
People Below the Poverty Line in India decreased to around 22% in 2011-12.
What is Food Security?
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) states that food security emerges when all
people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food
to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security
has three important and closely related components, which are listed below
1. Availability of food
2. Access to food
3. Absorption of food.

In Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India (1997), the Court observed “to live with
human dignity, free from exploitation. It includes protection of health and strength of
workers, men and women, and of the tender age of the children against abuse, opportunities
and facilities for children to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and
dignity, educational facilities, just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. These
are the minimum conditions which must exist in order to enable a person to live with human
dignity. No government can take any action to deprive a person of the enjoyment of these
basic rights.”
In Swaraj Abhiyan v Union of India (2016), the Supreme Court made it clear that: “There
can be no doubt that the right to food is actually a constitutional right and not merely a
statutory right… In any event, even if the right to food is a statutory right, it would be the
obligation of the State to make all possible efforts and some more to ensure that to the extent
possible, adequate food grains are available to all and particularly to those in drought affected
areas.”
Right to food Case – People’s Union for Civil Liberties v Union of India
FACTS: At tye time of filing oif the writ poetitrion the soR was severely affected by second
successive year of drought and incidents of accutre srtaravation. Almost half of the states
rural pop at the same time lived below poverty line. The petition was on behalf of those
helpless victims of the drought.
ISSUES: The issue raised was whether rtLife under ar 21inclused right to food?
Whether this would imply whether state had uty to provide food to people?
HELD: The court affirmed the right to food as necessary to uphold Article 21 of the
Constitution of India, which guarantees the fundamental right to “life with human dignity.” It
decreed that all the PDS shops, if closed, were to be re-opened within one week. The FCI was
ordered to ensure that food grains do not go to waste. The states were given the responsibility
over implementation of the following schemes: Employment Assurance Scheme which may
have been replaced by a Sampurna Gramin Yojana, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Integrated Child
Development Scheme, National Benefit Maternity Scheme for BPL pregnent women,
National Old Age Pension Scheme for destitute persons of over 65 years, Annapurna
Scheme, Antyodaya Anna Yojana, National Family Benefit Scheme and Public Distribution
Scheme for BPL & APL families. The Chief Secretaries of all the States & the Union
Territories are hereby directed to report to the Cabinet Secretary, with copy to the learned
Attorney General, within three weeks from today with regard to the implementation of all or
any of these Schemes with or without any modification and if all or any of the Schemes have
not been implemented then the reasons for the same.
The case has demonstrated that the State cannot escape the responsibility of ensuring the
Right to Food and the case continues – seeking to further strengthen the formulation and
implementation of food and other related social security schemes.
Laws on Food Security – India
In order to provide the Right to food to every citizen of the country, the Parliament of India,
enacted legislation in 2013 known as the National Food Security Act, 2013. Also called the
Right to Food Act, this Act seeks to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two-
thirds of India’s 1.33 billion population. Food Subsidy is the foundation on which the
National Food Security Act 2013 is implemented in India.
National Food Security Bill, 2013
1. This Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on 7th August 2013
2. It was passed in Lok Sabha on 26th August 2013.
3. The National Food Security Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha on September 02, 2013.
Food Security Programmes of India
1. Public Distribution System. – A major chunk of Government Expenditure on Food
Security is spent on Food Subsidies which are implemented through the Targeted Public
Distribution System.
2. Mid Day Meal Scheme
3. Integrated Child Development Services Scheme.
The food management system and food price policy, to ensure food security in India
thus consists of three major instruments,
1. Procurement at minimum support prices, (
https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper3/public-distribution-system-1 )
2. The maintenance of buffer stocks, and the
3. Public Distribution System.
Challenges to Food Security in India
1. Beneficiaries have complained of receiving poor quality food grains.
2. Farmers receive Minimum Support Price (MSP) from the Government for crops such
as wheat, paddy, and sugarcane. The MSP is higher than the market price. There is very
minimum procurement of other crops by the Government at MSP. Due to this factor farmers
do not have the incentive to produce other crops such as pulses. This puts immense pressure
on the water table as the above crops are highly water-intensive.
3. Due to the possibility of increasing nutritional imbalance in food grains, the
Government must expand subsidies and include other protein-rich food items.
4. Under the National Food Security Act, the identification of beneficiaries is to be
completed by State Governments. As per the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General
in 2016, a massive 49 % of the beneficiaries were yet to be identified by the State
Governments.
5. The available storage capacity in states was inadequate for the allocated quantity of
food grains as per the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
Solutions to Problems in Food Subsidy Delivery
The following solutions will help in addressing problems associated with PDS.
1. Replacing the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) with Direct Benefit
Transfer (DBT) of food subsidy. National Food Security Act (NFSA) states that the centre
and states should introduce schemes for cash transfers to beneficiaries. Cash transfers seek to
increase the choices available with a beneficiary and provide financial assistance. It has been
argued that the costs of DBT may be lesser than TPDS, owing to lesser costs incurred on
transport and storage. These transfers may also be undertaken electronically. As per a report
given by a high-level committee of Food Corporation of India (FCI), DBT would reduce
Government subsidy bills by more than Rs 30,000 crores.
2. Automation at the Fair Price Shops is another important step taken to address the
problem in PDS. Currently, more than 4.3 lakh (82%) Fair Price Shops have been automated
across the country. Automation involves the installation of Point of Sale (PoS) devices, for
authentication of beneficiaries and electronic capturing of transactions.
3. Aadhar and the introduction of Biometrics were recommended to plug leakages in
PDS. Such transfers could be linked to Jan Dhan accounts, and be indexed to inflation. It
facilitates the removal of bogus ration cards, checks leakages, and ensure better delivery of
food grains. In February 2017, the Ministry made it mandatory for beneficiaries under NFSA
to use Aadhaar as proof of identification for receiving food grains.
4. 100% of ration cards had been digitized.
5. Between 2016 and 2018, the seeding of Aadhaar helped in the detection of 1.5 crores
fake, duplicate, and bogus ration cards, and these cards were deleted.
6. Increase the procurement undertaken by states known as Decentralised Procurement
(DCP), and reduce the expenditure on centralized procurement by the Food Corporation of
India (FCI). This would drastically reduce the transportation cost borne by the government as
states would distribute the food grains to the targeted population within their respective
states. As of December 2019,17 states have adopted decentralized procurement.
7. The Fair Price shops operate at very low margins as per the findings of the
Government. Hence the fair price shops should be allowed to sell even non-PDS items and
make it economically viable. This will motivate them not to resort to unfair practices in the
distribution of Government-subsidized food grains meant for beneficiaries of Government
schemes.
8. Greater and more active involvement of the panchayats in the PDS can significantly
improve access at the village level.
9. There is also an urgent need to set up a proper and effective grievances redressal
system for both the fair price shops as well as beneficiaries

Shanta Kumar Committee

The government had set up a six-member committee to suggest restructuring or unbundling
of FCI to improve its financial management and operational efficiency in procurement,
storage and distribution of food grains. Important recommendations made:
 Reduce the number of beneficiaries under the Food Security Act—from the current 67 per
cent to 40 per cent.
 Allow private players to procure and store food grains.
 Stop bonuses on minimum support price (MSP) paid by states to farmers, and adopt cash
transfer system so that MSP and food subsidy amounts can be directly transferred to the
accounts of farmers and food security beneficiaries.
 FCI should involve itself in full-fledged grains procurement only in those states which are
poor in procurement. In the case of those states which are performing well, like Haryana,
Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, the states should do the
procurement.
 Abolishing levy rice: Under levy rice policy, government buys certain percentage of rice
(varies from 25 to 75 per cent in states) from the mills compulsorily, which is called levy
rice. Mills are allowed to sell only the remainder in the open market.
 Deregulate fertiliser sector and provide cash fertiliser subsidy of Rs 7,000 per hectare to
farmers.
 outsource of stocking of grains: The committee calls for setting up of negotiable warehouse
receipt (NWR) system. In the new system, farmers can deposit their produce in these
registered warehouses and get 80 per cent of the advance from bank against their produce on
the basis of MSP.
 Clear and transparent liquidation policy for buffer stock: FCI should be given greater
flexibility in doing business; it should offload surplus stock in open market or export, as per
need.

Recent Developments
India's top nutrition panel, National Technical Board on Nutrition, has recommended that
severely malnourished children must be fed freshly cooked food prepared from locally
available cereals, pulses and vegetables, and distributed by Anganwadi centres, as part of the
country's first-ever guidelines for nutritional management of children suffering from severe
acute malnutrition (SAM). The National Technical Board on Nutrition (NTBN) has approved
guidelines proposed by our Ministry of Women and Child Development. The government
had, till now, only put in place guidelines for the hospitalisation of severely wasted children
who develop medical complications.
The guidelines outline the role of Anganwadi workers and auxiliary nurse mid-wives
(ANMs) in identifying severely wasted children, segregating those with medical
complications and sending them to the nearest health facility or nutrition rehabilitation
centres. According to the recommendations, Anganwadi workers have to provide modified
morning snacks, hot cooked meals and take home ration for SAM children. The morning
snacks and hot-cooked meals, which are served at Anganwadis to children between the ages
of three to six years, should be “prepared freshly and served at the centralised
kitchen/Anganwadi centres. Locally available cereals, pulses, vegetables and tubers, vitamin
C rich fruits, as well as fresh milk and 3-4 eggs every week” have also been prescribed.
Importantly, the government has also revised the method to be used to measure wasting and
advised calculating weight based on the height of children instead of the mid-upper arm
circumference.
FOOD SECURITY ACT 2013

Salient Features and Objectives of the Act:

1. Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS): The Act aims to provide subsidized
food grains to Priority Households and Antodyan Households. Children from 6
months to 14 years receive free meals, while pregnant and lactating mothers are
entitled to maternity benefits.
2. Identification of Eligible Households: States identify eligible households based on
criteria set by the Central Government or Socio-Economic and Caste Census data,
with special attention to hilly and tribal areas.
3. Commissions: State Food Commissions monitor Act implementation, provide advice,
and address violations. They also serve as appellate authorities for grievances.
4. Grievance Redressal: Two-tier grievance redressal involves District Grievance
Redressal Officers and State Commissions, with provisions for call centers and
helplines.
5. Transparency and Accountability: Records related to TPDS must be public, and
social audits conducted periodically to ensure fair price shop functionality.
6. Penalties: The Act empowers State Commissions to penalize public servants or
authorities failing to provide relief or ignoring complaints.
7. Compensation: State governments must compensate for non-supply of entitled food
grains or meals.
8. Reforms in TPDS: Reforms include doorstep delivery of food grains, technology
integration for transparent transactions, leveraging Aadhar for identification, and
preference to public institutions in managing fair price shops.
9. Obligations of Central Government: Providing food grains, transportation, storage
facilities, and issuing implementation rules and directions.
10. Obligations of State Governments: Implementation, monitoring, and delivery of
subsidized food grains to entitled households, maintenance of fair price shops, and
providing food allowance.

Limitations and Criticism: Critics point to the Act's limited scope, exclusion during
emergencies, and loopholes in PDS leading to leakage, inadequate storage, and poor-quality
grains. Challenges also include climate change, lack of access, over-population, and rural-
urban migration.
Conclusion: Despite its potential, effective implementation is crucial to realize the Act's
goals. Transparency, technological integration, and comprehensive coverage can enhance its
impact, addressing India's food security and nutrition challenges.