Jan 30, 2009
Lying on a bed is a tiny malnourished child. Her limbs wasted, her stomach bloated, her hair thinning and falling out. Her name is Roshni. She stares, wide-eyed, blankly at the ceiling. Roshni is six months old. She should weigh 4.5kg. But when she is placed on a set of scales they settle at just 2.9kg. Roshni is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, defined by the World Health Organisation as weighing less than 60% of the ideal median weight for her height. There are 40 beds in this centre. On every one is a similar child. All are acutely malnourished. Wailing, painful, plaintive cries fill the air. This is the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in the town of Shivpuri. You might think we are somewhere in Africa. But this is the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - modern India, a land of booming growth. "The situation in our village is very bad," says Roshni's mother, Kapuri. "Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. Together with our children we are dying from hunger. What can we poor people do? Nothing."
The above given extract is from the BBC report by Damian Grammatics. You may wonder it is happening somewhere in Africa but it is in the heart of India Madhya Pradesh.
There are millions of Roshni’s in our country who die every day just because their parents cannot simply afford for a square meal a day. Though they get some food it is low in nutrition level. As India gears up for another revolution in every field in a world of cut throat competition, many children like Roshini will die a silent death. To put a full stop for these problems researchers have suggested Genetically Modified crops to be grown. But the fact is that though there is surplus growth in food production, it simply does not reach the hungry mouths. Thus what I have elaborated in this article is, we need a proper Public Distribution System that is effective and not Genetically Modified food.
In today’s Indian agricultural scenario farming has gone through a revolution. By better farming methods and use of machinery has increased considerably the production of food. But there are many major controversies in the use of Genetically Modified seeds, which has become a need in our agriculture methods because of certain vested interests in Government policies. There is no denial that production of food has increased by GM seeds but my point is that even after having such an amount of food production, why every year we hear about deaths by starvation?.Though we are not witnessing it like the great Bengal famine, but it is happening in phases.
PDS in India is the oldest and one of the most comprehensive anti-poverty programes in terms of budgetary expenditure of the central and state governments. From the mid 1960’s it has evolved into a price support, rationing and subsidy programme. Although food situation in the country has undergone drastic changes, from scarcity to surplus, the PDS is continuing more or less unchanged. Besides existing traditional problems like corruption, black market selling, rising transport cost have added more stumbling blocks in delivering necessary goods. Now let is take toll of the things.
Although food grain production in India has gone up in 1990’s from 175 million to 206 million tones, the growth rate in availability food grains per capita has come down -0.28% per annum in the same –period. This should be compared to a growth rate in per capita availability of +1.20% per annum during the 1980’s.furthur, the food consumption of the poor in India has gone down in the last 10 years. This is a very serious matter taking huge public stock of food grains into account .There is a strong case for using theses stocks for reducing rampant malnutrition among the vulnerable sections of the society. Despite hefty increase in the annual food availability from Rs.2450 cores in 1990-91 to Rs.13,675 Cores, in 2001-02, all is not well with targeted public distributing system and other food based schemes In India.
According to recent estimates, approximately 30%of population lived Below Poverty Level. This means their income is not sufficient to buy enough food. About 80% of these poor people live in the rural areas. The Government and most state Governments have formulated and implemented various schemes to alleviate poverty and improve the social security of these deprived people. These schemes aim to enhance self-employment, generate wage employment to transfer income to the poor.PDS, which is the largest among these schemes, is a massive food rationing programme meant to reduce food insecurity and improve the welfare of the poor. Despite such a huge cost to the exchequer and burden to the taxpayer, PDS and by extension, the FCI have not achieved any of the primary requirements of the food security.
Nevertheless, a ministry level evaluation of PDS carried out in 1991 had brought out the merits and demerits of the system as it has been operating. The greatest achievement of PDS was claimed to be “preventing any more famines in India”. Overcoming the 1987 drought, considered the worst in the country, with dignity and effectiveness has been seen as the PDS’s biggest success. However, the evaluation pointed out several short comings in the functioning of PDS.
Some of the serious flaws in the PDS system include, food policies r shaped by the Central politicians and senior civil servants who are not well aware of the practical difficulties at the local level resulting from their policies. The cost of PDS operations too high .A rupee of income transfer through food and non food items sold through food and non food items sold through PDS involves a fiscal cost of Rs.4.27 to the Government making the scheme grossly unsustainable. There are instances where food grains have been sold from PDS stores and Anganavadis to the black market.
So what is the alternative? Given the liberalized atmosphere and comfortable food grain situation, it is better to rely on the personal involvement of the stakeholders, who are prodders, and the open market mechanism that influences the consumption for India’s food security. At some times, the farmer and the consumer need to be protected against market forces and ensure fair prices.
The delivery system would also be efficient since it has to be competitive and competent. The huge saving this accruing to the Government could be utilised to step up public investment in needy, food vouchers/stamps could be supplied through Gram Panchayaths, that could be strengthened and employment for the purpose. Ensuring equality in the matter of the distribution of essential commodities. In short, PDS from mere rationing has to be evolved into National Food Security system.
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