FOOD SECURITY BILL – India approves world’s largest feeding scheme As seen in Midweek Newspaper India’s government on Wednesday approved a vast food welfare programme targeting the nation’s poor as it seeks to increase its popularity before national elections next year. “The cabinet has unanimously approved the food security ordinance,” food minister KV Thomas told reporters, adding that the measure would be sent to India’s president later on Wednesday for approval. President Pranab Mukherjee was due to pass the long-delayed National Food Security Bill asan ordinance, meaning it would come into law immediately but must eventually be approved by parliament. The multi-billion-dollar populist food welfare programme will be the largest in the world, offering subsidised grains to nearly 70 percent of the population, or more than 800 million people. The flagship programme has been pushed strongly by the head of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, who has insisted on honouring a 2009 election pledge despite concerns about the impact on the public finances and food prices. The measure would increase the annual food subsidy bill to around 1.1-trillion rupees or close to $20-billion (R201.65-billion), government officials have said. It is considered key to the Congress-led coalition’s fortunes in the elections due in thefirst half of 2014. The bill had been expected to be cleared by lawmakers in February, but it was never introduced due to protests from the opposition over corruption. Opposition parties have attacked the government for ramming the measure through by decree, saying there has not beenenough discussion of its effect on prices and on farmers who must produce more food. The bill guarantees a monthly supply of between three and seven kilograms of grain per person, depending on their level of income. Food prices have soared in India over the lastseven years, causing increased hardship in a country that still struggles to feed its population, despite impressive economic growth over the last two decades. An Indian survey released last year, which Prime Minister Singh called a “national shame”, showed that 42 percent of children under five are underweight and 58 percent of them are physically stunted. One of the findings stressed by the authors was that malnourished children were rarely hungry, but rather badly fed due to widespread ignorance about nutrition. Critics of the food programme also say that India can ill afford such a costly subsidy at a time of slowing economic growth and when credit ratings agencies are eyeing the country’s large deficit. Indians classed as below the poverty line can already receive subsidised kerosene, cooking gas, fertilisers or wheat through the world’s biggest public distribution system. But the chaotic welfare programmes are notoriously inefficient and riddled with corruption. A study by the national Planning Commission in 2005 showed that an estimated 58 percent of grains purchased by the government failed to meet their intended targets. Photographs of rotting food grains left out inthe open due to a chronic shortage of food storage facilities are also an annual feature innewspapers. But the Congress-led government sees the billas addressing one of India’s most intractable problems of malnutrition, which is an embarrassment for an aspiring superpower. Despite the administration difficulties and concerns about the cost, strategists for the government also see it as vital vote-winning scheme ahead of elections scheduled for early next year. The left-leaning Congress party, which has a record of passing large welfare programmes such as the 2005 Rural Employment Guarantee Act, has suffered a scandal-hit second term riddled with corruption. The economy has also slowed to its lowest rate of growth in a decade, undermined by low business confidence, a lack of market-opening reforms, high inflation and poor investment. Indian industry has questioned the wisdom of the Food Security Bill which has come one step closer to implementation. Curiously, on the one hand, the government is slashing the so-called subsidy on petrol, diesel and LPG every other day, saying there is no such thingas a free lunch, on the other hand, it is drafting an entirely new food subsidy amounting to Rs 1,25,000 crore per annum. This drain on the exchequer could cause chaos with fiscal deficit. FICCI has questioned whether the nation is “really ready” for the Food Security Bill. Dr A Didar Singh, secretary general, said, “The ordinance to implement the bill comes at a time when we are trying hard to get back on the path of fiscal consolidation. There is no denying the fact that right to food and proper nutrition should be the basic provision for every citizen. But, the recent announcement seems a little premature. The country is not yet fully prepared to roll out such a programme.”
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 06:14:17 +0000
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