Environmental Dynamics Impact of Food Security Bill in India

‘When India achieved independence, more than 50 years ago, the people of the country were much afflicted by endemic hunger. They still are.’ Amartya Sen, Noble Prize winner Shortage of food has not been unknown to the societies world over throughout the ages. The most extreme form of such shortage, the famines, has also been experienced by societies in varying degrees. India, with a vast population and uncertain harvest due to dependence on monsoon rains, has always been vulnerable to famines. Partition of the country in 1947 left India with 82% of the total population of undivided India but only 75% of the cereal production. India has an over abundance of food grains stocked in warehouses, yet millions of India's poor are left without food. The government's national food security bill proposes to provide food at a subsidised rate to nearly two-thirds of the country's 1.2 billion population. The bill would lead to nationalisation of agriculture by making the government the biggest buyer, hoarder and seller of food grains. There is a clear feeling that this would distort the market mechanism and reduce the bargaining power of farmers. The bill makes no provisions for production of food or for support of small and marginal farmers who are food producers. The main objection to the bill is that it does not specify any timeframe for the rolling out of the entitlements. While the Indian Council for Medical Research recommends that an adult requires 14kg of food grains per month and children 7kg, the bill provides entitlements to 5kg per person per month, thus ensuring only 166g of cereal per person per day. It’s truly justified that our policyplan-programme must ensure nutritional security than food security.