Not only Opposition, but even activists working under the aegis of Right to Food Campaign have come out against the Government’s move to bring an Ordinance granting legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains. They have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Food Security Bill should be passed after detailed debate and discussion in Parliament.
Questioning the hurry to promulgate an Ordinance when the Monsoon Session is just a few weeks away, the activists said that an issue like food security which affects millions of people in the country requires deep and informed debate.
Parties like CPI, CPI (M), BJD, TMC, AIADMK have moved amendments to the Bill and even BJP has consented to its passage after discussion, so they need to be heard, they pointed out.
Most parties have moved amendments asking for universal coverage and opposing the reduction of entitlements from 7 kg to 5 kg per month. BJP would like to present provisions of the Chhattisgarh Food Security Bill which is more progressive than the national Bill. Parties with large farmer constituencies like the Shiromani Akali Dal are perturbed at the lack of attention to farmers’ issues it pointed out and said that all these voices need to be heard and issues to be debated.
If the Ordinance is brought on the lines of the Bill that was presented in the Budget session, it will be extremely inadequate and makes a mockery of food security, the activists felt.
“The Bill provides extremely limited food entitlements, is piecemeal and is nowhere close to providing food security. It makes no provisions for production of food or for support of small and marginal farmers who are food producers, but very food insecure and poor. It even undermines some of the entitlements ensured by the Supreme Court in the Right to Food case. It has no provisions for community kitchens and feeding of the most hunger -prone or to deal with starvation deaths,” the Campaign, including scores of NGOs, said.
It demanded that shortcomings in the Bill like not specifying any time frame for the rolling out of the entitlements in the law should be removed. While the ICMR norms recommend that an adult requires 14 kg of food grains per month and children 7 kg; the Bill provides for reduced entitlements to 5 kg per person per month, thus ensuring only 166 gm of cereal per person per day, which is barely enough for two rotis a day.
It provides only for cereals with no entitlements to basic food necessities such as pulses and edible oil required to combat malnutrition. It has no provisions for feeding through community kitchens or measures for homeless, destitute and other sections that are most often the victims of starvation.