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Towards Hunger
Free India - Media Coverage
25 April 2001, The Hindu, New
Delhi, India
PM for better targeting of
food security
By Our Special Correspondent
 NEW DELHI, APRIL 24. The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, today
called for "better targeting'' of the food subsidy which had gone up
five times in a decade to reach Rs 13,000 crores this year.
Inaugurating a three-day Consultation on `Towards Hunger Free India',
organised jointly by the Planning Commission, the World Food Programme and
the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, the Prime Minister said the high
cost of managing food stocks (surplus of about 45 million tonnes) was a major
problem in the way of reaching cheaper food to a greater number of needy
families.
``While we need to substantially increase food production, we are faced with
the paradoxical problem of surplus food stocks. There is also the related
problem of substantial quantities of food being wasted. This has happened
because of inadequate attention in the past to food storage, preservation,
processing and proper distribution,'' he said.
He suggested that one way to reduce costs was to decentralise the buying and
distribution of food. Instead of the Food Corporation of India buying food at
one price and transporting it to other States, this year's budget has
proposed to give individual States the freedom to buy food from anywhere and
distribute it themselves. The Centre will provide financial assistance for
this purpose.
Mr. Vajyapee rued that the Public Distribution System (PDS) was not working
well in many places, especially in the poorer north and north-eastern States.
The limited off-take in the most populous States showed serious deficiencies
in the administrative quality of the system. Even the free food provided to
school children under the mid-day meal scheme was not that efficient.
Urging State Governments to remedy the situation, the Prime Minister said the
shortcomings at the implementation level could be overcome by ensuring
greater people's participation and monitoring. The panchayat raj institutions
and other citizen's organisations should play an active role in making the
schemes successful.
Regional and seasonal variations, fluctuations in the purchasing power of the
poorest households, natural calamities etc. combined to create conditions for
continuing food insecurity to people. The challenge before the Government was
to devise strategies to be able to anticipate and provide for these
conditions of insecurity and ensure year-round food security at the household
level.
In this context, he welcomed the `Food Insecurity in Rural India - Atlas and
Analysis' and the book on `Enabling Development: Food Assistance in South
Asia' that he released earlier. He said the Atlas complemented the
Government's efforts to target subsidised food to needy people.
The Prime Minister urged the Consultation to come up with a suggestion on how
the mass-feeding programme could be activated by religious and social
institutions in the spirit of "anna daan''- giving and sharing of food.
This was most required during natural calamities.
Earlier, the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Mr. K.C. Pant, in his
keynote address, emphasised that "geo- political conditions were not
such that food security could be dropped from its position as a central
element of the country's economic strategy''.
Focusing on need for employment creation in agriculture, enhancing growth
rate and better land and water management, Mr. Pant said the next stage of
the green revolution in the country had to come from the eastern region which
had the maximum potential for increase in foodgrain production.
Dr. M.S. Swaminathan said the mindset of "economic growth now and care
of the environment later'' would lead to an era of agriculture disaster. If
adequate and immediate attention was not given to sustainability factors such
as soil health, ground water management and crop rotation, then Punjab and
Haryana which serve as national breadbaskets, may become food insecure in
another 15 to 20 years.
He said the Food Insecurity Atlas clearly indicates that jobs/livelihoods for
all should be the bottom-line of India's economic and trade policies.
This view was echoed by Mr. Namanga Ngongi, the Deputy Executive Director of
WFP, who said the shared vision of a hunger free India could be achieved with
the right kind of development strategies. Strategies which work more through
women and make them the key players in development.
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