The government is pushing hard for Food Security Bill and opposition seems helpless in opposing the bill. The irony of socialist policies is that opposition in any form attracts criticism. The expected political morality in supporting the bill is acting in government's favor. Politicians has to contain the bad side of socialist policies and discuss bill openly, aggressively, and objectively to refine it . Though the bill will try to address the problem of hunger, execution strategy is flawed and rely on a corrupted Public Distribution System. The political parties must press to refine the execution strategy. Scheme, if implemented properly, shall shoot down two major problems of India; the farmer grievances and hunger problem.
There are few points worth mentioning about the bill. First, government plan to cover around 70% of the population under this scheme. Does government mean that such huge population of country can't afford daily bread? That's highly unlikely in a food surplus country. Rather, scheme should cover only the needy people, and most importantly children. In addition to BPL families, who will constitute these beneficiaries largely remains undecided. Government must clearly define the basic eligibility for food subsidy. Also how to contain political enmity at Panchayat level in deciding the person's eligibility must be thought through.
Secondly, the government is relying on corrupted Public Distribution System for disbursement, a system in which almost 50 % of the food grains make their way to black market and are sold for profits. We definitely can't rely on existing public distribution system to execute this scheme, at-least not in its current form. Have we learned nothing from License Raj? Interestingly, government neither have such huge storage capacity in place where food acquired from farmers can be stored for better purpose nor do they have any mechanism to contain the inherent corruption in the policy which would threaten the very purpose of this scheme.
Before taking such an undertaking of large scale, government must put all processes and infrastructure in place, or else it would be another shot in the dark. Some may question that food security bill is another step toward the government controlled food grain market. Point to be noted is that this policy will address the farmer's problem as government is supporting the Minimum Support Price for crops thus strengthening the farmer community.Also, Food Security bill will provide much required nutritious food to the almost all malnutrition-ed children. Although derivative of socialism, policy has potential to produce healthy workforce for a capitalist economy. It may provide the opportunity for many parents to save on food and health expenses; thus giving a opportunity to think about better education for their children.
The Food Security Bill not only guarantees the nutritious food but also promises to strengthen our farmer community through minimum support price but with existing infrastructure and execution record of government controlled policies, government has to be cautious from not letting it be another platform for corruption. The government has to be very clear in the bill that its long term sustainability is questionable and policy would only cover the BPL families after objective to contain malnutrition is met. Long term goal should be to make population capable enough to earn nutritious food rather government continuing to provide.
There are few points worth mentioning about the bill. First, government plan to cover around 70% of the population under this scheme. Does government mean that such huge population of country can't afford daily bread? That's highly unlikely in a food surplus country. Rather, scheme should cover only the needy people, and most importantly children. In addition to BPL families, who will constitute these beneficiaries largely remains undecided. Government must clearly define the basic eligibility for food subsidy. Also how to contain political enmity at Panchayat level in deciding the person's eligibility must be thought through.
Secondly, the government is relying on corrupted Public Distribution System for disbursement, a system in which almost 50 % of the food grains make their way to black market and are sold for profits. We definitely can't rely on existing public distribution system to execute this scheme, at-least not in its current form. Have we learned nothing from License Raj? Interestingly, government neither have such huge storage capacity in place where food acquired from farmers can be stored for better purpose nor do they have any mechanism to contain the inherent corruption in the policy which would threaten the very purpose of this scheme.
Before taking such an undertaking of large scale, government must put all processes and infrastructure in place, or else it would be another shot in the dark. Some may question that food security bill is another step toward the government controlled food grain market. Point to be noted is that this policy will address the farmer's problem as government is supporting the Minimum Support Price for crops thus strengthening the farmer community.Also, Food Security bill will provide much required nutritious food to the almost all malnutrition-ed children. Although derivative of socialism, policy has potential to produce healthy workforce for a capitalist economy. It may provide the opportunity for many parents to save on food and health expenses; thus giving a opportunity to think about better education for their children.
The Food Security Bill not only guarantees the nutritious food but also promises to strengthen our farmer community through minimum support price but with existing infrastructure and execution record of government controlled policies, government has to be cautious from not letting it be another platform for corruption. The government has to be very clear in the bill that its long term sustainability is questionable and policy would only cover the BPL families after objective to contain malnutrition is met. Long term goal should be to make population capable enough to earn nutritious food rather government continuing to provide.
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