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Towards Hunger Free India - Speeches
It gives me great pleasure to be here with you at this inaugural session of the consultation on "Towards a Hunger Free India". I compliment the Planning Commission, the World Food Programme, and the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation for this commendable initiative. This is a unique instance of the coming together of the Government, an international agency, and a non-governmental organization to deliberate on a critical challenge before our nation - namely, how to ensure Food for All.
Democracy and hunger cannot go together. A hungry stomach questions and censures the system's failure to meet what is a basic biological need of every human being. There can be no place for hunger and poverty in a modern world in which science and technology have created conditions for abundance and equitable development.
India has progressed on many fronts since Independence. We have achieved self-sufficiency in food, even though our population has more than trebled to cross the one billion mark in five decades. I compliment our hard working kisans and our agricultural scientists for increasing the growth rate in food production from 0.3 percent a year in the half century before Independence, to 3 percent in the half century since.
We have sufficient stocks of food grains. No one needs to go hungry in this country. Nevertheless, it is true that many millions of our countrymen still go hungry to bed every night. Malnourishment, especially among women and children, is widespread. We are determined to change this situation. In this, we are guided by the commandment of the Upanishads:
Annam Bahu Kurvita
It means: "Multiply food production many-fold. Ensure an abundance of food all around."
While we need to substantially increase our 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 its storage, preservation, processing, and proper distribution.
I am reminded here of the proverbial Akshay Patra - or the inexhaustible plate - in the Mahabharat. The plate was blessed with the powers of producing unlimited food, provided no part of it was wasted. What this metaphor teaches us is that, India can produce enough food to feed all her citizens and much more, but no part of it should be wasted.
The Government has drawn up policies and schemes to address all the critical issues in efficient food chain management. We are providing many incentives and facilities to farmers, their cooperatives, and to private entrepreneurs to set up godowns, silos, cold storages, and food processing units.
Few people outside Government are aware that India has the world's largest officially supported food and nutrition security programme. This initiative encompasses not just the public distribution system with its elaborate system of production incentives, marketing support, buffer stocking, and distribution, but also includes nutrition supplements to young children and mothers, mid-day meal schemes, food grants to the destitute, and food for work programmes for the working population.
We have doubled the allocations of food to all poor families under the PDS. The Antyodaya Anna Yojana, which is a new scheme for the poorest ten million families, gives a sharper focus to our commitment to reduce hunger.
To a great extent, these interventions have addressed the problem of access to food, both physical and economic, and have provided a basic safety net to our people. However, there is still a long way to go before we can assume that all our people are food secure at all times.
Regional and seasonal variations, fluctuations in the purchasing power of the poorest households, natural calamities, etc. all combine to create conditions for continuing food insecurity to large sections of our people. The challenge before the Government is to devise its strategies in such a manner so as to be able to anticipate and provide for these conditions of insecurity and ensure year-round food security at the household level.
In this regard, the comprehensive document on food insecurity in rural India being released today is most timely. It complements the Government's own efforts over the past few years to target subsidized food more accurately at the most needy regions and groups.
The high cost of managing our food stocks is a major problem in the way of reaching cheaper food to a greater number of needy families. There is an urgent need to ensure that the Central Government's annual food subsidy, which has gone up five times in a decade to reach Rs. 13,000 crore this year, is better targeted.
One way to reduce costs is to decentralize the buying and distribution of food. Instead of one agency, the Food Corporation of India, buying food at one price, and then moving it to States, this year's budget has proposed to give individual States the freedom to buy food from anywhere and to distribute it themselves. The Centre will provide financial assistance for this purpose.
I hope that this measure will encourage our State Governments to take creative steps to buy the cheapest food that they can get from the nearest sources and distribute it in the most efficient way possible. This will ensure that the Central subsidy can benefit more poor people than is the case today.
I must, however, point out that the implementation of the PDS is not living up to the people's expectations. Our Targeted Public Distribution Scheme does not seem to be working well in many places - especially in poorer north and north-eastern States. The limited off-take in the States where the majority of our poor live, points to serious deficiencies in the administrative capability of the system. I urge the concerned State Governments to effectively remedy this situation at the earliest.
Even the implementation of free food provided to school children under the mid-day meal scheme leaves much to be desired. This is a matter of serious concern. We owe it to the nation to run and operate all our beneficiary programmes in a cost-effective manner.
I believe that the shortcomings at the implementation level can be overcome by ensuring greater people's participation and monitoring. Our Panchayati Raj institutions and other citizens' organizations have to play an active role in making these laudable schemes successful.
We shall examine whether the surplus food stocks can be used in innovative ways. For example, to promote female literacy programmes and attendance in schools. India would be happy to learn from the experience of such exercises undertaken elsewhere under the auspices of the World Food Programme.
Friends, the responsibility of mitigating the hunger of the poorest of our brethren cannot be that of the Government alone. Concerned citizens and non-governmental organizations can contribute immensely to the success of our "Food for All" mission. As a matter of fact, they are already engaged in many admirable initiatives. I especially applaud the countless mass-feeding activities conducted by religious institutions, belonging to all communities.
We in India have a long tradition of Anna Dan - giving and sharing food. The full potential of this noble tradition has not been realized in modern times. Therefore, a specific idea I would like to place before your consultation is how we can activate mass-feeding programmes by religious and social institutions on a far wider scale. They are especially needed in times of natural calamities. I assure you that the Government would facilitate and support such activities in all ways it can.
I shall conclude by stressing my belief that the sacred mission of a "Hunger-Free India" needs the cooperative efforts of the Central and State Governments, local self-government bodies, non-governmental organizations, international agencies, and - above all, our citizens. We can indeed banish hunger from our country in a short time. Let us resolve today to make this mission substantially successful by 2007, which will mark the sixtieth anniversary of our Independence.
Thank you.
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