NFSA, 2013 – FOOD
SECURITY
News: Expand
the food safety net without any more delay
What's in the news?
● The
National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, through the Public Distribution System
(PDS), provides a crucial safety net for roughly 800 million people.
● Even
critics of the PDS appreciated its services during the COVID-19 lockdown.
National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013:
● Objective:
To provide for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach,
by ensuring access to adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices
to people to live a life with dignity.
● Coverage:
The Act provides coverage for nearly
2/3rd of the country’s total population, based on Census 2011 population
estimates.
● Selection of
beneficiaries: Stata/UT wise coverage is determined
by the erstwhile Planning Commission which is now NITI Aayog on the basis of
the 2011-12 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey of NSSO. Many states use
the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data for the identification of
beneficiaries.
● Categories:
75% of rural and 50% of urban population are entitled to receive highly
subsidized food grains under two categories i.e. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)
households and Priority Households (PHH).
● Foodgrains Entitlement:
The Act entitles 35 kg of food grains as per Antyodaya Anna Yojana Households
per month, whereas 5kg of food grains per Priority Households per person.
● Prices:
Rs 1/2/3 per kg for Nutri-cereals/wheat/rice respectively.
● Nutritional support to
women and children: Children in the age
group of 6 months to 14 years and pregnant women and lactating mothers will be
entitled to meals as per prescribed nutritional norms under Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meal(MDM) schemes
● Maternity Benefit:
Pregnant women and lactating mothers will also be entitled to receive maternity
benefits of not less than Rs. 6,000.
● Women Empowerment:
Eldest woman of the household of age 18 years or above to be the head of the
household for the purpose of issuing ration cards.
● Grievance Redressal
Mechanism: Grievance redressal mechanism at the
District and State levels.
Provisions of the Act:
● The
NFSA assigns joint responsibilities to
the federal and state governments.
● The
NFSA mandates the center with the responsibility of allocating and transporting
food grains to designated depots in the states and UTs.
● The
center must provide central assistance to states/UTs for the distribution of
food grains from authorized FCI godowns to the doorsteps of Fair Price Shops.
● States
and union territories are responsible for identifying eligible households,
issuing ration cards, distributing foodgrain entitlements through fair price
shops, licensing and monitoring Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers, establishing an
effective grievance redress mechanism, and strengthening the Targeted Public
Distribution System (TPDS).
● The
NFSA also includes provisions for TPDS
reforms, such as cash transfers for food entitlement provisioning.
● Direct Benefit Transfer
involves the cash equivalent of the subsidy being transferred directly into the
bank accounts of eligible households.
PDS:
● PDS
is the "social security programme
for the distribution of food grains and essential goods to the vulnerable
section at subsidized price, through a chain of fair price shops.
● It
has been working in Indie (as a general entitlement scheme since 1960s) which
later on rationalized as TPDS in 1997.
Rationale/Importance of PDS:
● It
is essential to fortify food &
nutritional security of the nation by ensuring social, economic and
physical access to food grains. Access to nutritious food would improve the
public's overall health.
● It
is beneficial to the agricultural sector.
● It
also helps the government control food
prices.
● Because
agriculture is a labor-intensive industry, a boost in the agricultural sector
would result in more job opportunities.
● This
would boost economic growth and lead to
a reduction in poverty.
● Food
security is also important for the nation's
global security and stability.
● The
right to food is not explicitly
mentioned in the Indian Constitution.
● Until
the NFSA, the fundamental right to life under Article 21 was interpreted to
include the right to live with dignity, which could include the right to food
and other basic necessities.
Challenges in PDS:
1. Leakages and Diversion:
● Diversion
of food grains during transportation.
● Black
marketing by Fair Price Shops (FPS) employees.
● In
this context, "De-Privatization" of the Ration shops and
"Doorstep Delivery" of grains to FPS by the chattisgarh Govt. has
addressed this issue.
2.
Exclusion:
● The
deletion of ration cards, problems in linking ration cards to Aadhaar the system
seems to create more problems than it solves excluding many families rather
than including them.
3. Storage issues:
● Inadequate
storage capacity with FCI.
● Food
grains rotting or damaging on the CAP or Cover & Plinth storage.
4. Poor quality of grains supplied:
● The
poor quality of commodities supplied seems to be the proximate cause of poor
off-take of commodities like wheat and rice in urban areas.
● The
poor quality of grains supplied to the beneficiaries of the PDS also fails to
check out the perishing issue of malnutrition in India.
5. Rising Subsidy and financial burden:
● As
recent data show, the central government procures about a third of the quantity
of cereals produced domestically. However, the amount slated for procurement is
expected to increase under the NFS Act, raising concerns regarding the
sustainability of such a food delivery mechanism.
● There
are also concerns regarding the financial feasibility of such a system. The
centre bears a large financial burden, the food subsidy because the cost of
procuring and delivering food grains is about six times its sale price.
● It
is anticipated that the food subsidy will rise steadily due to the increased
procurement of grains under the Act, related costs and other factors.
6. Issue with procurement:
● Open-ended
Procurement i.e., all incoming grains accepted even if buffer stock is filled,
creates a shortage in the open market.
7. Urban Bias:
● A
close look at the geographical distribution of fair price shops reveals that
administrative convenience rather than the essential objectives of the PDS had
determined its expansion.
● It
has an urban bias, with most of the shops being located in cities and towns.
● As
a consequence, the benefits of PDS are available to the urban rich and not to
the rural poor.
8. Lack of transparency
in the selection of procedure of PDS dealers.
Measures taken by Government:
1. Aadhaar Linked and digitized ration cards:
● This
allows online entry and verification of beneficiary data. It also enables
online tracking of monthly entitlements and off- take of foodgrains by
beneficiaries.
2. Computerized Fair Price Shops:
● FPS
automated by installing 'Point of Sale' device to swap the ration card. It
authenticates the beneficiaries and records the quantity of subsidized grains
given to a family.
3. DBT:
● Under
the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, cash is transferred to the beneficiaries
account in lieu of foodgrains subsidy component.
● They
will be free to buy food grains from anywhere in the market.
● For
taking up this model, pre- requisites for the States/UTs would be to complete
digitization of beneficiary data and seed Aadhaar and bank account details of
beneficiaries.
● It
is estimated that cash transfers alone could save the exchequer Rs.30,000 crore
every year.
4. Use of GPS technology:
● Use
of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to track the movement of trucks carrying
foodgrains from state depots to FPS which can help to prevent diversion.
5. SMS-based monitoring:
● Allows
monitoring by citizens so they can register their mobile numbers and
send/receive SMS alerts during dispatch and arrival of TPDS commodities.
6. Use of web-based citizen's portal:
● Public
Grievance Redressal Machineries, such as a toll-free number for call centers to
register complaints or suggestions.
7. Universal PDS:
● Tamil
Nadu implements a universal PDS, such that every household is entitled to subsidized
food grains. This way, exclusion errors are reduced.
WAY FORWARD:
1. To eliminate exclusion errors:
● For
including the excluded in the PDS during this pandemic, experts like Abhijeet
Banerjee, Amartya Sen and Raghuram Rajan have gone on record recommending a
temporary ration card for a period of six months to everyone who is in need
with minimal checks.
● They
have rightly remarked: “The cost of missing many of those who are in dire need
vastly exceeds the social cost of letting in some who could perhaps do without
it.”
● The
Delhi government has initiated this type of temporary e-coupon system.
2. Door-step Delivery:
● During
this pandemic, all the respondents complained of overcrowding at the ration
collection points. They also expressed fear of catching the disease due to the
complete absence of social distancing norms. Door-step Delivery is a good
alternative to respond to such a situation.
● If
the doorstep delivery takes time to be rolled out, the government can consider
increasing and diversifying distribution points. Government schools have
already been used as PDS delivery points but other public spaces such as sports
stadia, public parks, post offices can be roped in to distribute ration as an
emergency measure.
3. To meet inadequate food-supply:
● Various
State governments should consider establishing community kitchens providing
free food as done by the Kerala government to cater to the hungry as an
immediate measure.
● Kerala’s
community kitchens have been quite successful in the current situation.
4. Addressing the food quality issue:
● Technology-driven
solutions have the potential to resolve immediate challenges as well as long
term challenges.
● Use
of upcoming technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and
the Internet of Things could be urgently adapted to eliminate the menace of
adulteration and bad quality food grains.
5. Ensuring accountability:
● One
mechanism for checking and making the process of distribution more accountable
was suggested by the Delhi High Court in a petition filed by Delhi Rozi Roti
Adhikar Abhiyan which sought time-bound redressal of complaints regarding
non-supply of rations and transparency in the distribution of food grains.
6. A separate cadre for ration inspection:
● Experts
suggest that a separate cadre of government employees be established for this
purpose and stationed at all the FPS. They could be called Ration Inspectors
and their job would be to ensure impartial and hassle-free delivery of food
grains from the FPS.
● The
formation of such a cadre only needs a notification by the Ministry of Consumer
Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and the legislation can take place
later.
PDS
is one of the government's largest
welfare programs, assisting farmers in selling their produce at fair prices
and allowing the poorer sections of
society to purchase food grains at reasonable prices. Its effectiveness can
be increased with technology-based
solutions, as evidenced by some state's successes in this area. The best
way forward is to strengthen the existing TPDS system through capacity building
and training of implementing authorities, as well as efforts to plug leaks. To
improve the nutritional status of the masses, bio-fortified foods must be distributed through the PDS, which will
make it more relevant in the context of widespread malnutrition in India.