The official stock of food-grain with the Food Corporationof India stood at 77.7 million tonnes as of March 1. This includes 27.5 milliontonnes of wheat and 50.2 million tonnes of rice. The rice estimate includes asignificant quantity of unmilled paddy. This mountain of grain is among the highestlevel that the government has held in its stock. It is far in excess of what isrequired by the norms defined by the government itself. And this large stock isprior to the coming rabi harvest, which is expected to be bumper, and will addfurther to the stock. The coexistence of high stocks with the government amidstrising hunger and starvation, is a peculiarly Indian phenomenon, and this isnot the first time such an anomaly needs to be highlighted. Food-grainprocurement and the public distribution system (PDS) are designed to meet threeobjectives: food security, food price stability and adequate remuneration tofarmers with minimum support prices. There is an inherent inadequacy in usingjust one instrument to achieve all three objectives. Add to it, the otherfactors like inefficiency of large bureaucracies, lack of coordination betweenCentral and State agencies, pilferage and wastage, lack of storage capacity,knee jerk policy responses like imports and exports of food, it is no wonderthat this elaborate system has failed to address the problems of hunger andnutrition.
Last year, India’s global rank in the hunger index slippeddown nine places to be at 102 out of 117 countries. The government hasprotested that the methodology is flawed and the data is outdated, but even byits own admission, India’s rank would be 91, hardly a matter of pride.
During the Covid pandemic, the problem of food security hasbecome more acute. Millions of migrant workers and their families were seen inan exodus of reverse migration from cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Surat afterthe announcement of the 21-day lockdown. Since public transport by trains andbuses was not available, many people just chose to trek hundreds of kilometresback to their villages. State governments then swung into action and set upshelters and food distribution centres to mitigate the suffering of migrants,who have lost jobs, incomes and livelihoods. These are the vulnerable sections,including large numbers of the urban poor who are suddenly exposed to foodinsecurity in addition to a loss of livelihood. The States are tryingdesperately to prevent the migrants from going back, so that infections don’tspread, and also the availability of labour is not jeopardised in thepost-COVID phase.
A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking animmediate direction to the Centre to address the plight of migrant workers andtheir families, in terms of shelter, food, medicines. The government in itsresponse to the PIL filed an affidavit, which described ongoing efforts ofprivate companies, NGO’s and State governments that were cumulatively able toserve more than 8.5 million people with food and rations. This is woefullyinadequate. The number of people facing a food insecurity crisis could be upwardof 40 million. The long lines of people waiting to receive a plate of cookedfood is testimony to the seriousness of the crisis.
The government has tried to be as responsive as possible,but it needs to do more. For instance, it needs to massively scale up theinvolvement of partner NGO’s who can help run community kitchens, and providecooked food or dry rations in several cities and also rural areas. But theNGO’s need to be given food-grain at a nominal PDS price or completely free, asalso additional funds to buy cooking oil, vegetables and spices to meet thecost of food preparation. So far, the government orders specify that FCIwill sell grain at Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) prices, which are even abovethe MSP, and simply unaffordable to the NGO’s. Moreover, the PDS rationsneed to be given to both ration card holders as well as those without anyration cards. Otherwise the food crisis will worsen and lead to starvationdeaths or food riots. The allocation of grain to families of migrants andthe urban and rural poor should be a lump sum equivalent to three-month quotas.
Apart from the poor, we may be headed for sporadic shortagesof food stuff for the non-poor too, during the lockdown. There are reports thatflour mills are operating at 25 percent capacity due to unavailability ofwheat, workers or packaging material. The country has 2500 units which have acombined production capacity of 25 million tonnes of flour, sooji and maida.Some units have been forced to shut down due to a blockage of their workingcapital in making biscuits and bread. Despite the government’s quick responsein allowing truck movements, there are supply chain disruptions due to unevenpolice action, or lack of coordination between various levels of government. Itis unwise to categorise food into essential and non-essential items. Who is tosay that flour is essential but noodles are not?
Even before the Covid pandemic, back in August there was yetanother PIL in the Supreme Court seeking direction to setup a national grid ofState-funded community kitchens to cater to the urban and rural poor, andespecially to those who fall outside the PDS. This was to combat the worseninghunger and malnutrition status in the country. That PIL referred to theinitiatives of soup kitchens and canteens run in States like Tamil Nadu,Andhra, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand and Delhi. These would be complementaryto mid-day meal schemes which serve hot meals to nearly a 100 million studentson a daily basis. The government’s Poshan Abhiyan (Nutrition Mission) launchedthree years ago has only spent 37 percent of its budgeted funds as of December.
Clearly the aim of eliminating hunger in India is a dauntingchallenge. In times of Covid, food security has become an urgent crisis. Fortunately,we have a mountain of grain, which if quickly and intelligently deployed canmitigate the crisis to a large extent. The government must not hesitate intransferring grain stock from the FCI to State agencies and NGO’s at zeroprice, whatever be the fiscal implication.
Dr.Ajit Ranade is an economist and Senior Fellow, Takshashila Institution
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