43% children
suffering from malnutrition. 40% women anaemic.
Reports of hunger and
starvation deaths from all corners of the country
This was also the time when
the Indian growth story in the middle of a world recession made us heroes in
the world. It was also the period when we have managed to increase our buffer
stocks of food to 8.5 crores metric tonnes. We continue to export food grains
to feed the cattle of the developed countries while our own people go hungry.
It is in such a context that
we must look at the UPA II’s plan to pass the National Food
Security Bill in November- December during the forthcoming winter session of
Parliament. The Bill is to say the least a damp squib. It talks about food
security without in any way dealing with the causes of food insecurity-
increasing joblessness, low wages, landlessness, the increasing displacement of
people and encroaching upon their jal,
jangal and jameen. It also does not mention the present agrarian crisis or
the farmer suicides nor outlines any steps by which farmers will be supported
and food production will be ensured within the country.
In terms of entitlements also, it takes the much ridiculed and
flawed system of targeting one step further, by dividing the population into
three categories –i) the excluded, who will get no food grains; ii) the priority groups who will get 7 kgs of food
grains per head per month at Rs. 3 for rice, Rs.2 for wheat and Rs.1 for coarse
grains; and iii) the general group who will get 5 kgs of food grains per head
per month at half the Minimum Support Price (the price at which grain is
procured from farmers).
Indian Council of Medical Research, the prestigious research
organisation on medical matters places the cereal requirements at 14 kgs per
month for an adult. However, ignoring this, there are now reports that the
Government is planning a system to cover 67% of our population, reducing
allotments from the present 7 kgs per head per month to 5 kgs per head per
month. Thus, in the face of increasing hunger, the Government has come up with
a brilliant plan- reduce food entitlements further! To make things worse, there
is no sign that the Government is even considering to provide pulses and
cooking oil, essentials for good nutrition, at subsidised prices.
In fact, by sleight of hand, the Government while pretending
to pass a Food Security Act is actually reducing its expenditure on food in the
PDS through the new Bill. Where it used to spend Rs.89,272 crores on PDS alone,
its latest plan is to spend Rs.116510 crores on all schemes- PDS, MDMS and
ICDS. This is likely to involve a reduction in expenditure on the PDS. Food
grains allocation are planned to be raised from 56.4 million metric tonnes for
the PDS to 61.5 million metric tonnes, of which about 8 million tonnes is for
the ICDS and MDMS, leaving a reduced amount of 53.5 million tonnes for the PDS.
We thus have a law being passed to reduce the amount many of
us receive from 7 kgs per card to 5 kgs per card and to reduce the total amount
spent on food. To make matters worse the new Bill has a very weak redressal
system, which means that theft and corruption will have little remedy. It is
also trying to push a regime of cash instead of food through the back door
through some of its provisions.
We say- stop fooling us!
We demand:
- Open the doors of the godowns and distribute the 8.5 crores of food grains that you have locked up to the hungry of this country immediately.
- Provide food grains to everyone in the 200 poorest districts immediately as a first step and then move towards universal coverage under the PDS.
- Stop theft in the PDS system immediately. Let us get rid of all the bogus cards- each ration dealer has at least 500-800 such cards. Let us break the nexus between the ration dealers, the whole sale retailers, mill owners, the Food Department and the politicians. We want a clean, transparent, well run rationing system
- Pass a genuine Food Security Bill with strong redressal mechanisms.
- Remove this false difference between APL and BPL. Ensure that everyone in this country gets the medically necessary 14 kgs of food grains per head per month. Give us pulses and cooking oil at subsidised rates through the PDS.
- Ensure an agrarian revival by making remunerative support prices for farmers a legal guarantee and ensuring that food grains required for the PDS are procured in a decentralised manner from farmers all over the country at these remunerative prices.
Join us in our nation-wide campaign. Join the Yatra in your
state to highlight these issues from 2 to 15 October 2012
And, join us at the mass meeting for Eastern
India in Jamshedpur
where state wide yatras from Bihar , Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Orissa and West Bengal will culminate on 16 October 2012 .
