**********SAMPLE ESSAY FOR SBI PO ASSOCIATE******* Is Food Security Law necessary for India? There exists a linear relationship between economic growth and health and a better economic growth leads to a better health status. When this nation is considered important, food security becomes a sheer necessity. The economic growth of our country has been considerably good in the past decade; however, there has not been any significant reflectance of economic growth on the health status of people in the country. The economic role of food and nutrition is something which can be looked down upon and this in turn, becomes a rationale for formulating a public policy. A proper food policy hence becomes the need of the hour. A well targeted nutrition policy can create wonders and also provides a way analogous compared to other policies. In this scenario, the National Food Security Bill can turn into something revolutionary and can leave a huge impact in the economy of the country. The Bill can transform and restructure the lives of people if carefully crafted and implemented. The recent Food Security Bill proposed by the expert committee, headed by Dr. C. Rangarajan, outlines some of the salient features such as providing food grains at subsidized prices at least to 75% of the people in the country, priority households getting 35 kg of food grains at a price of Re. 1, 2 and 3 for millets, wheat and rice respectively. The Bill also assures a constant price and coverage until the end of the twelfth plan period. The bill also highlights the need to rebuild the public distribution system in the country. Government of India has introduced several welfare schemes like the mid day meals scheme and the food grains needed for it is also taken into the current estimate of the total food grain requirements. A buffer stock maintenance becomes mandatory keeping in view some unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances such as flood, draught and other natural calamities. One of the best ways to ensure distribution of food grains in the country is through Public Distribution System which runs about 1k Fair Price Shops in the country. However, the distribution system must be competent enough to deliver as the basic objective of the bill is to curb hunger and malnutrition. Identification of beneficiaries should be done precisely and the machinery should be programmed perfectly to assure that the schemes reach the needy. Unfortunately, the entire system in our country is abetted by corruption and this comes as a major threat to the developmental policies. Political and bureaucratic problems in the country need to be addressed first and it is high time for us to realize that the real-time problems cannot be solved by the stroke of a pen. The darker side of the proposed bill is that it may turn out to be little beneficial and create new avenues for political and bureaucratic corruption. Moreover, the proposed bill may not prove effective in identifying the problems relating to malnutrition, hunger and poverty. Improving environmental sanitation is one of the most preferred tools to reduced malnutrition and that is one measure the central government should adopt. One of the better solutions for this would be identifying the beneficiaries and the needy geographically. When this is done in a perfect way the rest becomes easier. Public Health Campaigns no doubt have a bigger role to play when it comes to enhancing the nutritional levels of children and women. Hence, drafting a Food Security Bill and passing it in the parliament with absolute majority will alone not solve the purpose of food and malnutrition, but implementation of proper measures to ensure that the schemes reach the beneficiaries properly will only provide a better solution to solve the food crisis.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 14:30:11 +0000
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