Food Security Law in India an endeavour to tackle the problem of hunger through legislation (original) (raw)
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Agriculture and Food Security in OIC Member Countries 2020, 2020
[Selected sections from chapters in SESRIC's Agriculture and Food Security in OIC Member Countries 2020 coordinated by Mr. Mazhar Hussain]. Cite as: Qureshi, T. (2020). Food Security [Chapter 4]. In SESRIC, Agriculture and Food Security in OIC Member Countries 2020 (pp. 34-51). Ankara: SESRIC. Retrieved from https://www.sesric.org/publications-detail.php?id=515 Abstract Eradication of hunger and malnutrition and making households more food secure are basic human rights protected under various international conventions and policy platforms and clearly emphasized in both the UN SDGs and the OIC-2025 Programme of Action. Hosting almost 175.98 million undernourished people, the challenge of food security in OIC countries takes on an added importance because it affects their overall developmental trajectory in both the short- and the long-terms. However, policies and programs aimed at ensuring food security often fail to realize the critical importance of tailoring interventions to national needs. Similar to the variations in the level of income and development amongst OIC member countries, the level of food security – or lack of it – is highly varied in OIC member countries. This is because food security is directly affected by factors including, but not limited to, difficult economic conditions, weak commodity prices, lack of adequate infrastructure, poverty, conflicts, adverse climatic conditions, and more recently, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Such factors can either prolong or worsen chronic and transitory food insecurity around the world. This in turn can prove catastrophic for food availability, access, stability, and utilization.
The Challenges of the National Food Feed Its 1.3 Billion People
Occasional Paper Series, Section on International and Comparative Administration, 2021
This article focuses on some of the key challenges India must deal with to ensure food security. Three issues have framed recent debates. First, the past year saw the expression of a long-standing demand from civil society groups. They sought a comprehensive legislative framework for ensuring food security in the form of a National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013. This overcame an early reluctance on the part of the government to commit to such an Act.
Historical Perspective of Food Policy and Issues in India
Food security is a condition related to the ongoing availability of food. Concerns over food security have existed throughout history. There is evidence of granaries being in use over 10,000 years ago, with central authorities in civilizations including Ancient China and Ancient Egypt being known to release food from storage in times of famine. Yet it was only at the 1974 World Food Conference that the term 'food security' was established as a formal concept. (www.fao.org) The issue of Food Security has been identified as a major objective to be pursued by the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action convened by the Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO)of the United Nations in 1996. The summit emphasized that “food security exists when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their daily needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. ( Suresh C.Modgal,pp.3-4) Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences Food security is built on four pillars: The WHO states that there are three pillars that determine food security: 1. Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis. 2. Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. 3. Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation. (http://www.who.int) The FAO adds a fourth pillar: the stability of the first three dimensions of food security over time. There is a great deal of debate around food security with some arguing that: There is enough food in the world to feed everyone adequately; the problem is distribution. In this context, in the present paper an attempt has been made to analyze the Historical Perspective of Food Policy and Issues in India. Significantly this paper traced the Governmental effort in providing food to the people thorough various schemes such as Mid-Day-Meal, Nutrition Programme, SC/ST/OBC Hostels, Annapurna Scheme, Sampoorn Gramin Rozgar Yojna (SGRY), National Food for Work Programme, National Food Security Act,2013 to end poverty and hunger among the people of India.
Whither Food Policy and Institutions in India?
The report of the High Level Committee (HLC) to restructure the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has major implications for the future trajectory of food policy in the country. The Committee has made some important recommendations for improving the operational efficiency of the FCI. These recommendations, particularly the ones related to technology adoption and bulk handling in storage, should go a long way in improving the current situation of grain management. However, the Committee has left many important questions related to food policy and models of food distribution unanswered. Most importantly, the HLC has missed a major opportunity to highlight the importance of evolving a conceptual framework to define and measure food security in the country, which is crucial for a meaningful discourse on food security issues. The methodological errors in calculating leakages from PDS and the absence of discussion of alternative models of food management are the other major shortcomings of the report.
The world population is rising rapidly over the growth of food grains thus leading to food crisis. Access and distribution of food in order that people do not have enough and they die due to hunger and starvation. This problem continues even in the 21st century making Food Crisis one of the major global challenges. Various steps and measures are undertaken by countries to over this problem but their efforts to reduce hunger have remained inadequate. Some country programmes, in particular China and Brazil, have been successful through the progress they have achieved in providing access to food for their people and reducing poverty. in this people we will look at the Indian scenario w.r.t. food security as well as the steps taken by the government of India to obtain Food Security.