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Food Security and Public Distribution System: a Field Level Study of the Disadvantaged People of India

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Food Security and Public Distribution System: a Field Level Study of the Disadvantaged People of India Food Security and Public Distribution System: A Field Level Study of the Disadvantaged People of India Tapan Kumar Ghosh* Indrajit Ghosh** Tonmoy Chatterjee*** Abstract: Food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals' access to it. Concerns over food security have existed throughout history. India has now reached a stage where the country is no longer exposed to real famines. Attaining food security is a matter of prime importance for India where more than a-third of its population is estimated to be absolutely poor, and as many as one half of its children have suffered from malnourishment over the last three decades. India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is the largest distribution network of its kind in the world. The present paper attempts to address the meaning, causes, consequences and solutions of the food security and the functioning of the PDS in India. It is an empirical study based on data collected through field survey. This study covers four villages, located in the district of Jalpaiguri of West Bengal, India, consisting of 160 households in 2018. The paper presents a comparative study of the four villages considered in the study, focusing on various aspects of food security and the role of Govt. in food security. A number of suggestions have been put forward for better and wider implications of the food security to the disadvantaged people of India. This concise and readable survey not only presents a simple history of food and its consumption, but also provides a unique examination of world history itself. ..................................................................................................................................................... Keywords: Food Security, Public Distribution System, Malnourishment, Hunger, Famine, Disadvantaged People. 1 I. Introduction India has seen impressive economic growth in recent years; the country still struggles with widespread poverty and hunger. India’s poor population amounts to more than 300 million people, with almost 30 percent of India’s rural population living in poverty. The good news is, poverty has been on the decline in recent years. According to official government of India estimates, poverty declined from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10. Rural poverty declined by 8 percentage points from 41.8% to 33.8% and urban poverty by 4.8 percentage points from 25.7% to 20.9% over the same period (World Bank 2012). India is home to 25 percent of the world’s hungry population. An estimated 43 per cent of children under the age of five years are malnourished (WFP 2012). India remains an important global agricultural player; despite the fact that agriculture’s share in the country’s economy is declining. It has the world’s largest area under cultivation for wheat, rice, and cotton, and is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and spices (World Bank 2012). Nearly three-quarters of India’s households are dependent on rural incomes. Agricultural productivity in the country’s semi-arid tropical region is impeded by water shortages and recurrent drought, while environmental degradation and vulnerability to weather-related disasters pose challenges to the country as a whole. Poor populations also face a lack of access to productive assets, financial resources, education, health care, and basic social services. The government has recently begun to focus on microenterprise development as a way to address these challenges, as well as initiatives to bring basic services to the rural poor. With the country’s population and economy continuing to grow, huge demands will be placed on critical infrastructure in the coming years. It is estimated that US$1 trillion will be needed to meet India’s infrastructure needs in the next five years (World Bank 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) defines food security as a situation when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life. The lack of a balanced diet minus essential nutrients results in chronic malnutrition. The global food security challenge is unambiguous: by 2050, the world must feed nine billion people. According to the Global Hunger Index 2014, India ranks 55 out of the world’s 120 hungriest countries even behind some of its smaller South Asian counterparts like Nepal (rank 44) and Sri Lanka (39). Despite its self-sufficiency in food availability, and being one of the world’s largest grain producers, about 25% of Indians go to bed without food. Describing malnutrition as India’s silent emergency, a World Bank report says that the rate of malnutrition cases among Indian children is almost five times more than in China, and twice that in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2 So what are the reasons for India not being able to rise to the challenge of feeding its poor with its own plentiful resources? Experts ascribe many reasons for this deficit. They say the concept of food security is a complex and multi-dimensional one which becomes even more complicated in the context of large and diverse country like India with its overwhelming population and pervasive poverty and malnutrition. According to Shaleen Jain of Hidayatullah National Law University in India, food security has three broad dimensions – food availability, which encompasses total food production, including imports and buffer stocks maintained in government granaries; food accessibility – food’s availability or accessibility to each and every person; and thirdly, food affordability – an individual’s capacity to purchase proper, safe, healthy and nutritious food to meet his dietary needs. Pawan Ahuja, former joint secretary in the ministry of agriculture, says India’s problems result mostly from a deeply flawed public distribution system than anything else. “Despite abundant production of grains and vegetables, distribution of food through a corruption-ridden public distribution system prevents the benefits from reaching the poor,” says Ahuja. There is other challenges which India faces in attaining food security, adds the expert. “Natural calamities like excessive rainfall, accessibility of water for irrigation purpose, drought and soil erosion. Further, lacks of improvement in agriculture facilities as well as population explosion have only made matters worse.” To grapple with its food security problem, India operates one of the largest food safety nets in the world — the National Food Security Act 2013. India’s department of food and public distribution, in collaboration with World Food Programme, is implementing this scheme which provides a whopping 800 million people (67% of the country’s population or 10% of the world’s) with subsidised monthly household rations each year. Yet the results of the program have been largely a hit and miss affair, with experts blaming the country’s entrenched corruption in the distribution chain for its inefficacy. Keeping the above aspects in mind, the article would make an attempt to explore the meaning, causes, consequences and solutions of the food security and the functioning of the PDS in India. The paper also presents a comparative study of the four villages considered in the study, focusing on various aspects of food security and the role of Govt. in food security. For this study we have mainly used primary and secondary data and literature from various sources. The second section deals with the research methodology and food in Indian History. In the third section we have explored the food security in India. In the fourth section we have explain the Public Distribution System. The fifth section deals with the results of the field study. Section six concludes the discussion. 3 II. Research Methodology Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal State, India has seven Panchayat Samitis. Out of seven Panchayat Samitis of Jalpaiguri district, one Panchayat Samiti have been selected randomly which is Malbazar. And then one Gram Panchayat (Odlabari) from the Panchayat Samiti has also been selected randomly. Thereafter, we have select randomly four villages from the Gram Panchayat which are Gojaldoba Tea Garden, Odlabari Tea Garden, Dakshin Odlabari and Patharjhora Tea Garden. Then from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list kept by the Gram Panchayat office we have selected 20 households randomly and 20 other households not belonging to the category of BPL have also been selected by us on a random basis. Thus, we have taken into consideration 160 households in total for the purpose of our study. Each of these households has been interviewed by us through administering questionnaire prepared by us to gather relevant information pertaining to our study. An attempt has also been made to interview ‘Prodhans’ of our sampled GP. To be immune from any political bias, we have endeavoured to collect information from representatives of both parties in power as well as outside of it. For our purpose of collecting necessary information, we have contacted some other persons found to be fruitful for ascertaining certain necessary information regarding the functioning of GP, which was found important to be incorporated into our study. Food in Indian History During the World War II India faced acute food shortages and to meet the exigencies a separate Food Department was established on 1st December 1942 under the Commerce Member of the Governor General’s Council. The Food Department was re-designated as Ministry of Food on 29th August 1947. As per available records, the Directorate of Sugar and Vanaspati was part of Food Ministry in 1947. On 1st February 1951 the Ministry of Agriculture was combined with the Ministry of Food to constitute the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, for greater administrative efficiency and economy. Over time as the work expanded significantly, two separate ministries, namely Ministry of Food and Ministry of Agriculture were formed in October 1956 but they were again merged on 17th April 1957 as Ministry of Food and Agriculture. On 30th December 1958, the work related to the Central and State Warehousing Corporations was transferred to the Department of Food, in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
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