PROMISES TO KEEP
Millions face hunger pangs despite growth…..Subodh Varma
Millions face hunger pangs despite growth…..Subodh Varma
Although finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had promised food security and inclusive growth in his budget speech last year,hunger continues to stalk over 300 million citizens.India slipped to 67th place among 122 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2010 prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute.An Oxford University report said 410 million Indians live in poverty.While there may be nitpicking over the actual numbers,one thing is clear there is widespread,if not alarming,hunger and malnutrition despite a high growth trajectory.
The situation worsened in the past year with vegetable prices zooming up by over 24%.Since March last year,potato prices rose by over 75% and onion rocketed up by a jaw-dropping 300% for a few months pushing these vegetables out reach of large sections of people.Inflation had become a vehicle for sustaining malnutrition and hunger in the country.
Yet,the government continues to drag its feet on crucial measures as providing cheap food grain to the people,according to a study by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA),a Delhi think-tank.The single biggest step that could reduce hunger and bring down pricesuniversalisation of the public distribution systemhas been stuck in wrangling between policy wonks.
The CBGA study points out that providing cheap wheat and rice to about 24 crore households would cost the exchequer Rs 1,44,141 crore.The government is already spending Rs 55,578 crore on providing food subsidies as per 2010-11 budget estimates.So,the net additional cost would be Rs 88,563 crore per year.Many economists argue that India can ill afford such huge amounts on food subsidies.But calling such arguments unsubstantiated,the CBGA said food subsidies amount to less than 1% of Indias GDP and less than 4% of the combined expenditure incurred by state governments and Union government annually.
Financial constraints can never be an excuse for denying the basic needs of the masses,and even less so when the government is prepared to forego tax revenue (as exemptions and deductions in both direct and indirect taxes) to the extent of Rs.5,02,299 crore for a single fiscal year (2009-10 ), says the CBGA study.
The argument that there is not enough foodgrain to distribute to all the people too comes in for criticism.As per the Second Advance Estimates released on 12 February 2010,the procurement of wheat and rice was 253.9 lakh tonnes and 236.9 lakh tonnes respectively last year,which accounted for only about 23% of the total food production.Universal public distribution would involve procurement of 1,008 lakh tonnes of foodgrain.Enhancing the procurement levels can easily do this,the study says.
Last year in August,the Supreme Court had directed that 17.8 million tonnes of grain in danger of rotting in government godowns should be distributed to the people.This was after there were reports that 67,000 tonnes of wheat had been spoiled in the rainy season due to insufficient protection in godowns.Such tragic waste could be avoided if the government were to streamline the PDS,plug leakage and build infrastructure to deal with storage and transportation.
