Let’s Make a Sense of this Non sense call Food security Bill

The political drama of Food security bill came to end , it’s seems that Congress more interested to celebrate the Break up party of BJP-JDU ( As celebrated in saif-dipika in movie lov aaj kal ) than Food security bill.

Congress (not UPA) leave the idea of take ordinance on Food security , Pawar seems to be interested in that .

A superb title set by Deccan herald on “Food security : A good politics to deliver Bad economics ! ‘”

Really There is huge difference between 2 word : “National Food Security Bill “ AND “Food For All “

                                
                                                                 

                                          


All know that this is year of General election and this is the power stroke that UPA want to play . Malnutrition’s , Food for all , Human development index, Clean drinking water , this words have no relation with Food security bill, only one word have relation with NFSB is POLITICS !

Leave the politics , let’s look on the ideology of bill

1st Why Food security bill  ?

1^st line of Bill - to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Standing committee Said :- Article 21 of the Constitution of India provides the right to life to all the citizens of India including the Right to Food. Further, Article 47 of the Constitution, inter alia, provides that the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties


NAC said :- The Supreme court of India has recognized the right to food and nutrition as integral to the right of life and further specified variously the corresponding duties of state

Contradiction :- The same bill designed to target 66% people (75% in rural area and 50% in urban area)

If Right to food is a constitutions right than why Bill exclude 33% of population ? In the introduction of Bill it’s seems that they are very worried about constitution provisions ( bye the way after 65 years but they ) than how can crossed Articles 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 of the constitution ??

Another aspect Of Ideology :- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which India is a signatory, also cast responsibilities on all State parties to recognize the right of everyone to “ADEQUATE” food.

Hope There may be a International pressure but chances are less !

 Now Come to second Question :- Why there is Priority, General , destitute & homeless ??

It’s not a universal target scheme   , If government make it universal than Capitalist  say it’s the waste of tax payers money , economist argue about the lack of funds

Rs 88,263 crore in corporate taxes forgone for encouraging exports, etc, than why not for just to cover 33% more to universalized PDS

P.saianth said in the notes of Expert committee on the methodology of census 2009 :- “The rights of people are based upon their being human , in this case citizen not by their ability to pay “

He also said : The more you make division the more will leakage and miss use and our experience said the same : there was less leakage when there was PDS and leakage drastically increase with the introduction of TPDS

 Third nonsense :- A centralized Food Security Bill will sort out hunger and malnutrition

UPA itself tried various schemes like mid day meal , Anodaya anna yojana,  Rajiv Gandhi pay jal but the result is what – 0 as usual so instead of try such huge project and waste public money best way is to practice trial and error method and try various option on mobile project and choose best


Mid day meal – 700 calorie ( on paper , real must be lower than it ) and the standard caloric intake standard is minimum is 2000/day for 14 year boy . and the situation is such worst that parents in rural area write to Ministers to give Mind day meal Monday at morning cause child starve on Saturday and Sunday due to holiday in school

For adults :- 7 kg/person

A MP from ruling party him self  said in Standing committee :-

“Shri Naveen Jindal, M.P. (LS) – World Health Organization (WHO) prescribes minimum subsistence to be 11 kgs as against 7 kgs that is being prescribed right now. Committee may like to suggest accordingly.”

  4^th and Interesting nonsense :- Force Majeure

Clause 9 - This clause makes provision for emergency and disaster-affected persons. It provides that the State Government shall in an emergency and disaster situation provide two meals to the affected households, free of charge, for a period up to three months, in accordance with such scheme, including cost sharing, as may be prescribed by the Central Government. 

                                                   AND

Clause 52 - The central and state governments shall not be liable for claims by persons covered under the Bill for failure to supply food grains or meals in force majeure conditions, such as, war, flood, drought, fire, cyclone, earthquake, or any Act of God ( this is not a line from movie Oh my God ! )


I have no need to give comment on this ..standing committee it self said :- The Committee observe that many parts of the country are perennially affected by either floods or drought or sometimes both, in different regions for which contingent plan of action could be drawn up in advance. The Committee feel that as the NFSB is meant to provide food security to all the citizens, the Government should not leave the affected persons to defend themselves when they most need the help and support of the Government. It is also noted that black marketers and profiteers are out to make profits from the vulnerability of the affected population in such times of difficulty.

The Committee are of the view that in a Welfare State like India, the Government cannot shy away from its responsibility towards their citizens under any circumstances, be it natural calamity or otherwise. On the contrary, the Government should be committed to meet any contingency arising out of natural calamity or otherwise and help its victimized citizens to the extent possible. The Committee, therefore, feel that the provisions of Clause 52 of the Bill should not stand part of the Bill and may be deleted.

5th - Lack of proper study of :- Effect of food security on Rural Market & Food Inflation


Bill It self said there is need to hike in grain production .Punjab, hariyana , UP , MP on it’s saturation production , need second round a grain revolution in eastern part of India .

But not any detailed study on it’s effect on other Agricultural product .

It’s clear that Government will procedure grain on MSP , so more farmers tends to produce grains ( whet,rice,etc ) it’s lead the scarcity of other agricultural product and it will lead inflation.

The government will also have to keep increasing the MSP it offers on rice and wheat. This will have to be done to incentive's farmers to produce more rice and wheat to help the government distribute it to the entitled beneficiaries. The farm labour costs have been on their way up. As the report points out “There is an acute shortage of labour in agriculture that has suddenly cropped up in these three years. In some states, labour costs have gone up by more than 100% over the same period. Due to these rising costs, the margins of production for farmers have been declining both for paddy and wheat . Therefore, the government may have to raise procurement prices for rice and wheat to encourage farmers to increase production of these staples. As the cost of production of crops is rising, MSP can’t be kept frozen.” This means that the government expenditure on right to food subsidy will keep going up.

RBI Governor Subbarao  :- The National Food Security Bill, 2011, is another (1^st one is MGNAREGA ) potential source of pressure on inflation, and its inflationary impact will depend on the extent to which it will raise demand for food grains relative to the normal increase in supply. Estimates suggest that 68 per cent of the country's 1.2 billion population will get a legal entitlement for food grains after the Bill is enacted, significantly raising the annual grain procurement demand even as the available marketed surplus would not increase correspondingly. "This will create demand pressures, which will inevitably spillover to market prices of food grains. Furthermore, the higher food subsidy burden on the budget will raise the fiscal deficit, exacerbating macro level inflationary pressures,"

but Need to make  sense in oppose to media’s created nonsense :-

Many times you read the Following headlines in news paper :-

* Can we afford Food security bill ?

* 98000 crore bill to save Gandhi dynasty.

* Are our politics rotting like food grains ?

But here is the stats of subsidy :-

National food security bill -  Rs 1.16 lakh crore

Currently Following schemes Running on food subsidy and included in NFSB :-

(a) food subsidy (Rs 85,000 crore)
(b) mid-day meal (Rs 13,215 crore)
(c)Integrated Child Development Scheme (Rs 17,700 crore)
(d) maternity entitlements (Rs 450 crore)

Natioanl food security – (a+b+c+d) =  8635 crores

So, the additional expenditure is around Rs 8,635 crore, an increase of 0.09 percent of the GDP.

Conclusion :- Food security bill is Good for Nation but the way is wrong  such programme should be designed at district level ( not by central nor state ) cause more the distance between design and implementation the more leakage .

Such programme need more flexibility , and looking at the clauses of bill it seems that there will be more Fight between center-state and state-state over migrant and Fund distribution

The Food Security Bill will neither ensure food security not spare the budget. It is only intended to secure the political fortunes of the First Family.

R Jagannathan, Dec 14, 2011

References :-

Draft of National food security Bill

PRS Comparison of NAC bill , Draft bill and Standing committee

First post E-book on food security

Report of the Expert Group (NC Saxena) on the methodology for the BPL Census 2009

Standing Committee Report