Caught in a policy trap

Even as Parliament gets ready to discuss the Food Security Bill, lawmakers must keep in mind that legislations, funds and programmes are just one part of the solution of the hunger problem.

The front-page photograph that appeared in yesterday’s edition of this paper — a frail 60-year-old feeding her equally frail grand-daughter black tea because she could not afford to buy milk — showed the acute levels of helplessness and deprivation that exist in several parts of India, including the ground zero of Hungry India, Balangir in Orissa. However, Balangir, part of the infamous ‘KBK’ trio (Kalahandi and Koraput being the other two), has been an enduring reminder of how despite programmes and funds, a huge number of Indians still go to bed hungry every single day. The Balangir syndrome, unfortunately, is not specific to one or two regions — when it comes to hunger, India as a whole performs disastrously. The 2008 India Hunger Index, calculated by the International Food Policy Research Institute, found that not a single state in India falls in the ‘low hunger’ or ‘moderate hunger’ categories. Twelve states fall in the ‘alarming’ category, and one state—Madhya Pradesh—falls in the ‘extremely alarming’ category. Four states — Punjab, Kerala, Haryana and Assam — fall in the ‘serious’ category. And in the Institute’s Global Hunger Index, India ranks 66 out of 88 nations (developing countries and countries in transition). The report added that despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly 25 Sub-Saharan African countries and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh. A shameful record, no doubt.

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Even as Parliament gets ready to discuss the Food Security Bill, lawmakers must keep in mind that legislations, funds and programmes are just one part of the solution of the hunger problem. Along with laws, its own foot soldiers need to be made accountable for a time-bound implementation of the programmes. At the last count, five ministries run 17 anti-poverty and health programmes in India that is supposed to ensure a cradle-to-grave safety net. But when it comes to delivering them to the targeted category, every step is fraught with corrupt arms of government. Even getting a BPL card, which is supposed to be the first step to demand the safety net, turns out to be a challenge.

The World Food Programme says that the reasons behind hunger are myriad: war, the poverty trap, agricultural infrastructure and over-exploitation of the environment. Except the first, the other three are very true in most parts of India. All these and a poor delivery mechanism are ensuring a sub-human level of existence for many people.