‘Ye karna hi hai’ (this has to be compulsorily done) said Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Chairperson of the UPA and the Lok Sabha passed the Food Security Bill, barely eight months ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. There was a fierce competition between Congress and the opposition to grab credits for passing the bill. India’s finance minister said the country can afford this massive new program to provide two-thirds of the country’s population with cheap food. But the stock markets thought otherwise and sank more than 3% as the already battered Indian rupee plunged to a new low at 66.30 against the dollar. The message from the markets was clear – ‘ye nahi karna hai’. Much has been said and written on this ambitious program by the government of India. We discussed the need for such a program in our previous session ‘Food Security – the time has come‘. The President had already promulgated the Food Security Ordinance in the first week of July 2013. For the ordinance to continue as a law, both houses of Parliament must ratify it within six weeks from the start of the next parliamentary session. The Rajya Sabha is yet to pass it but it’s only a matter of time because there is a consensus in the Parliament on this. Today, we will have a quick look into the financial validity of the initiative.
About the Bill
Name: The National Food Security Bill, 2013.
Aim: The primary objective of the bill is to guarantee cheap food grain to 67% of India’s 1.2 billion people. The broader aim is to alleviate chronic hunger and poverty in India.
Why it’s important: India accounts for a third of the world’s poor (as per the World Bank). Almost half of the country’s children under five are classed as chronically malnourished, and more than a third of Indians aged 15 to 49 are undernourished, according to India’s National Family Health Survey in 2006, the latest data available.
Who it affects: The bill would provide subsidized food grain to 75% of India’s estimated 833 million rural population and 50% of an estimated 377 million urban population.
Which states already have a Food Security Scheme?
How it works?
Cost and Criticism?
An economist’s critique of the Food Security
Snapshots from the Food Bill
What is the ‘crowding out effect’?
Is there any other country whose example India can emulate in eliminating hunger?
To know the answers to the above questions and understand in detail about the Food Security Bill,
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