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heeals
Joined: Jun 14, 2012
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Country: India
Province/State: Delhi
City: New Delhi
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Will India's poor remain hungry?
Aug 13, 2012
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A proposed Food Security Act would help - but not solve - the nation's food insecurity.
Salina, KS - As India's proposed new Food Security Act hovers in political limbo, the nation remains
hungry. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made headlines in early January when he labelled the fact that
44 per cent of children less than five years old were underweight and 65 children die each day of
malnutrition "a national shame". In all, 21 per cent of all Indians are undernourished.
Indeed, India ranks among the 15 hungriest countries in the world according to the Global Hunger
Index - a grim fact made even grimmer when one recalls that one out of every six people on Earth
lives in India.
There is much talk these days about a human right to food. Even the governments that don't recognise
such a right are aware of the political and social turmoil that erupts when food becomes too scarce
or costly. Since the 1950s, many nations have, in effect, purchased revolution insurance by
buffering their food supplies against the sometimes devastating gyrations of world markets.
So-called public food distribution systems (PDS) have operated for years in dozens of countries
around the globe. Governments buy up grains from farmers at a guaranteed price, maintain national
grain stocks, and distribute grains and other foods through their PDS to consumers at subsidised
prices.
India's PDS has been selling subsidised food through "fair price shops" on a national basis since
the 1970s. The government in Delhi provides grain stocks to the states, who, in turn, supply the
networks of fair price shops. The Food Security Act would increase the amount of grain going through
the system by more than 75 per cent. That would raise the total to 66 million tonnes, or more than
one third of India's entire grain production. If it were loaded into rail cars, it would occupy a
train more than 5000 miles long that would stretch from Delhi to Casablanca.
Under the act, a family living below a specified low-income threshold would receive a new
food-ration card, allowing each family member seven kilograms of grain each month at ultra-cheap
prices: three rupees (about six US cents) per kilogram for rice, two rupees for wheat and just one
rupee for sorghum and millet. That programme would serve 46 per cent of the population of rural
India and eight per cent of urban residents. Another 27 per cent of Indian households, ones with
somewhat higher incomes, would be eligible for three kilograms of grain each month at a higher, but
still subsidised, price.
When governments intervene through a PDS to help both the farmer and the consumer, there's no free
lunch. If the farmer is to stay economically viable and the consumer is to have affordable food,
public funds have to fill the gap. And that's something that gives ulcers to those who truly believe
in India's market makeover.
for complete & detailed reading please visit here :-
http://heeals.blogspot.in/2012/02/will-indias-poor-remain-hungry.html[link="http://heeals.blogspot.i
n/2012/02/will-indias-poor-remain-hungry.html"]*
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ammar
Joined: Oct 9, 2012
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Country: Pakistan
Province/State: Punjab
City: Lahore
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Re: Will India's poor remain hungry?
Oct 9, 2012
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There is much talk these days about a human right to food. Even the governments that don't recognise
such a right are aware of the political and social turmoil that erupts when food becomes too scarce
or costly. Since the 1950s, many nations have, in effect, purchased revolution insurance by
buffering their food supplies against the sometimes devastating gyrations of world markets
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ammar
Joined: Oct 9, 2012
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Country: Pakistan
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Will India's poor remain hungry?
Oct 9, 2012
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That programme would serve 46 per cent of the population of rural India and eight per cent of urban
residents. Another 27 per cent of Indian households, ones with somewhat higher incomes, would be
eligible for three kilograms of grain each month at a higher, but still subsidised, price.
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http://bootballindustry.blogspot.com/
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STUART H. GROZBEAN
Joined: Nov 1, 2012
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Country: United States
Province/State: Maryland
City: Rockville
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Re: Will India's poor remain hungry?
Nov 1, 2012
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Indian Government has made and passed several bills and plans for rural food safety and employment
but as per the news we get about the level of corruption there, the real matter to worry id the
execution of these planned strategies. If implemented well on ground level, several problems
including poverty ad hunger could be resolved.
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