More jobs than food

The food security Bill bites more than governments can chew

The draft National Food Security Bill, 2011 of the United Progressive Alliance government bears a closer resemblance to the version proposed by Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC) than the one preferred by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. Yet, the draft put out for public debate is unlikely to be welcomed without reservation even by the well intentioned. The key NAC proposal incorporated in the draft suggests that the proposed law should go beyond the supply of highly subsidised foodgrain to include the provision of cooked meals for the destitute, including homeless people, poor children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, regardless of the cost and practical difficulties involved. Further, the Bill provides for cash compensation in case the government fails to supply foodgrain or meals. Not surprisingly, the financial burden of doing all this has been placed on state governments! Considering that most of India’s poor are from states that lack the required financial resources, it is not clear how the good intentions of a distant central government will be realised by cash-strapped state governments that have to deal with the disaffected!

 

The Bill’s provisions are expected to cover 75 per cent of rural households, with 46 per cent “priority” households, and 50 per cent urban households, with 28 per cent “priority” families. The foodgrain entitlement would be 7 kg per person per month for the priority beneficiaries and 3 kg for the general category. These proposals had been objected to by the agriculture and food ministries, which fear an escalation of food requirement for such project implementation. Things could get bad in seasons of shortage. The draft Bill proposes paying Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 1 for coarse cereals for the priority households, not exceeding 50 per cent of the minimum support prices for the general category. The poor in many states are already getting rice at Rs 2 per kg; in Tamil Nadu, it is Rs 1 per kg. They stand to lose. Moreover, the parameters for identifying the priority families have not been specified in the Bill and have been left to be decided by the Centre. This may irk the states since they have to identify the beneficiaries and supply grains or meals to them. The draft Bill has proposed some welcome safeguards against the misuse of benefits, especially cash allowance, by recognising a woman as the head of the family and providing for social audit of the Bill’s implementation.

Though all this is good, the fact remains that the new scheme is to be implemented by the same old decrepit and moribund grain delivery system — the notoriously inefficient and leakage-prone targeted public distribution system (TPDS). Only few states have initiated measures to revamp the TPDS to reduce malpractices.

The draft Bill seeks to create a massive additional administrative infrastructure comprising a national food security commission, state food security commissions, district-level food security commissions, and a grievance redressal mechanism at the national, state and district levels. Such a proliferation of food distribution bureaucracy will create jobs and increase public spending. However, it remains to be seen whether it will ensure food security for the needy.