--The Ordinance is a small step in the right direction: Biraj Patnaik
The Right to Food (RTF) campaign sees this as the beginning of the struggle rather than the end of it. There are many provisions of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) which will need to be expanded and strengthened. For instance, the reduction of entitlement of foodgrains to 25 kg from the existing 35 kg is clearly unacceptable. The non-inclusion of millets and oil in the public distribution system (PDS); the potential backdoor entry of contractors in the Integrated Child Development Scheme; the fact that farmers have been completely left out of the Bill; the reduction of the entitlements for children; the exclusion of other key determinants of nutrition like sanitation and safe drinking water and the removal of community kitchens and destitute persons from the final version of the ordinance/Bill are also important omissions that need to be addressed.
The RTF campaign was hoping that many of these provisions would be addressed by the amendments that the political parties have introduced and, therefore, a debate in Parliament is critical for the NFSB. We are, therefore, deeply disappointed that the government is adopting the ordinance route for what is potentially a historic legislation.
Even if all these were to be incorporated in the NFSB, getting the Act implemented and ensuring that people get their entitlements on the ground will remain the main challenge for the campaign. By far the biggest challenge will be the correct identification of the poor. The experience of the RTF campaign has been that whenever there has been targeting, it has led to exclusions. And the most vulnerable sections of the population, who need the benefits of the legislation, are the ones who are likely to be left out.
In a nutshell, the Ordinance is a small step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done.
Is the Food Ordinance old wine in new bottle?
Legal entitlement and price reduction apart, nothing much seems different from current targeted public distribution system
The government's Food Security Ordinance, promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday, is a big social welfare initiative as it guarantees legal right to food for the first time. A closer look on some of the provisions of the Ordinance and the existing targeted public distribution system (TPDS), however, reveals that apart from the legal entitlement and price reduction, there is little difference between the existing scheme and the food subsidy programme.
What the Food Ordinance does in short is to expand the provisions of the current Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), which is targeted at the poorest of the poor and grant the same benefits, except for the quantity, to below and above poverty line (BPL and APL) families as well, merging the latter in the process and giving all a legal right.
'FOOD BILL NEEDS GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM'
One of the most debatable points is that the Government states to provide nutritious food, but how can nutrition be ensured only by providing food grains like rice, wheat and coarse grain? The bill has only provision for cereals with no entitlements to basic necessities such as pulses and edible oil required to combat malnutrition.
For the bill to be effective, there needs to be in place a strong, decentralized and independent grievance redress mechanism that includes Panchayat or Block level grievance redress officers with power to impose penalties on erring officials, demanded Samuhik Bikash Committee.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
womenESCR+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/womenESCR?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "(PWESCR) E group on women's ESCR" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to womenescr+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
For University of Pakistan Study Material Sharing, Discussion, etc, Come and join us at http://4e542a34.linkbucks.com
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Study" group.
To post to this group, send email to http://ca13054d.tinylinks.co
For more options, visit this group at
http://004bbb67.any.gs
No comments:
Post a Comment