Once the Rajya Sabha clears the proposal for the UPA government`s latest flagship food security scheme , it will be the world`s biggest program designed to combat hunger. In the midst of rising inflation, the Government has set its ambition on marking out over Rs.1.25 lakh crore for the scheme to entitle 67 per cent of India to highly subsidised food. When the Lok Sabha cleared the Bill, there were as many as 300 calls for amendments but it sailed through since no political party wanted to be seen as coming in the way of the scheme. For all the way the scheme is being pegged by Opposition parties as the UPA’s populist move with an eye on the 2014 elections, they too know that sticking out their necks and voting down the scheme could be a major impediment on making themselves popular with the country’s voters. As per the provisions of the bill, beneficiaries would get rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg, and coarse grains at Rs 1/kg. The said rates would be valid for three years once the scheme turns into a reality. Every pregnant woman and lactating mother would get free meal during pregnancy till six months after child birth. They will also get a maternity benefit of Rs 6,000 in installments. Children up to 14 years would get free meals. In case of non-supply of food-grains, states will have to pay food security allowance to beneficiaries. On paper, the scheme is not only populist but comes across as a pure socialist approach to the citizens of the country for there can be no denying that a majority of the population in the country make do without access to food. But India being the country that it is and the manner in which government schemes are rolled out, it is in the implementation of the scheme that will mark its effect. It is evident from the current nature of other socialist government schemes such as the mid may meal schemes or the Integrated Child Development schemes (ICDS) that the Food Security Scheme too can run into the same challenges of officials helping themselves to scheme funds or run the risk of being over run due to lack of inbuilt support systems.
Mid day meal schemes aimed at bringing children to school, combating hunger and addressing malnourishment issues have been found to be irregular in its operation and being carried out without any quality control as is evident from cases of food poisoning being reported from various parts of the country. The meal scheme did not factor in the costs for food products apart from food grains while the low amounts marked for staff meant to be involved as cooks for the meal schemes have mostly led to non teaching school staff doubling over as cooks. With the ICDS program, one does not have to look further than Manipur where a majority of crèches and anganwadi centers exist on signboards without children being served at all. Time and again, staff at these centers take to the streets, fighting hoarse over non-payment of their honorarium for months on end. Apart from this two, there are various other schemes marked out to address hunger and aimed at subsidizing food costs but there are various obstacles in the way for people who are meant to benefit from the schemes. One major barrier is to posses proof that a beneficiary is entitled to get access to schemes. Mostly, those who get aid under welfare schemes in the state have to be in the good books of what are known as ‘party workers’ to have their names included. In an ideal world, the identification of those who are eligible for getting benefit under various welfare schemes of the Government should be done through the information garnered from the Census reports which also does an intake of the income and earning levels of households and family members.
The same barriers will be what will impact on the food security scheme inevitably: that those responsible for the implementation will get in the way of its effectiveness. Another reality that needs to be factored in is that of the quality of food grains that will be subsidized for the country’s poor and whether proper infrastructural support for storage of food grains in terms of transportation and storage facilities will be taken care of.