At a time when central banks around the world are in the throes of rising interest rates, in the context of an impending recession in several major world economies, an endless war, and uncertainty about energy availability and pricing in the Northern Hemisphere winter, The only encouraging news was India for three months till the end of December 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
We have been celebrating Azadi Amrit Mahotsav for the past few weeks, marking several milestones that stand in the last 75 years of independent India. In my view, the biggest of them was the Food Security Act, which codified into law the right to a defined amount of subsidized food for 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population. The magnitude of this food guarantee in a country the size of India became possible only because it was coupled with a long-standing price support incentive for farmers to grow our staple food grains, rice and wheat. This policy caused excessive ‘graining’ of the country’s cropping pattern, and damaged farms by promoting rice cultivation in northern states such as Punjab, where it is not a traditional crop, but has come to stay. The policy’s large buffer stock of grains also enabled the Food Security Act.
You might also like
Will OPEC Oil Production Cuts Pinch You at the Pump?
Festive fizz for economy as buyers boost sales
Bajaj Finance Outlook Promising, But Watch Margins
Why is growth slowing in the services sector?
The act enjoys support across the political spectrum. It gradually built up with the efforts of food-to-food activists across the country, eventually disseminating through the National Advisory Council of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
At the time, I remember criticizing the excessive emphasis placed on transmitting food security through the household, when countless studies showed that food distribution within the household was uneven and unfair. I was in favor of directly targeting vulnerable groups in homes through mid-day meals in schools and direct feeding of pre-school children and pregnant and lactating mothers through the Integrated Child Development Scheme. These provisions were also included in the Food Security Act for vulnerable populations, but they were discretionary add-ons in their nature and it is not clear how well they actually worked in practice, as opposed to the original household provision. is opposite.
At the time, it seemed unimaginable that there might ever come a time when institutions like schools and pre-school anganwadis would actually close down, as they were during the pandemic lockdown. Who would have ever thought that food security for children can be ensured only through the homes they belong to and not through the institutions where they gather and can be directly accessed.
Today home-based food security is locked in law. And then came PMGKAY, which began in April 2020, along with another add-on in the form of a free food supplement, equivalent to subsidized rations under the Food Security Act. Remember that the ration itself was created from caloric adequacy calculations. When that provision was actually doubled, and the doubling add-on was free, it provided a substantial amount of food grains to the recipient families. This enabled them to feed household members coming back from urban areas, and children deprived of school meals.
PMGKAY was criticized in some quarters for not providing other supplemental needs such as cooking oil and salt, but because grain was so abundant, it was actively traded for these supplemental needs. This was because a fair amount of additional rations made their way into the market, even as the Food Security Act did not roll over (resulting in the lack of documented support) to households, yet at low market prices for food grains. benefited from.
The crucial role played by PMGKAY in blunting the harsh edge of the pandemic for the country’s poor was picked up for appreciation by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on her recent visit to Delhi.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee complements the Food Security Act in providing work places on demand by the rural population. It was less effective during the pandemic as any gathering of workers took their own risks, but is now playing a role in boosting rural household income at a time when small-scale enterprises are still dormant, and unskilled employment still hasn’t picked up. Is. So yes, it is an important complement to the Food Security Act, but with arbitrage through money and varying delays between work and wage receipts. The food ration is inflation indexed. MGNREGA is not a wage.
Going forward, what will happen to PMGKAY after December 2022? It may not continue indefinitely in its current form, but instead of stopping abruptly, it can be halved before initially thinning (for all).
Nutritional adequacy is another matter. Rural access to freely available high-protein foods such as fish has decreased alarmingly, with inland water bodies being contracted out to suppliers of urban markets. The water bodies themselves have disappeared in large numbers. Their restoration should be an urgent element of the climate action programme.
Indira Rajaraman is an economist.
Elsewhere in Minto
In Rai, Rupa Madhav and Ashirvad Dwivedi explain business water risks Commodity Exchanges of India. Rohan Banerjee weighs in on New Zealand Laws against official use of flowery language, long story tracks local train economy of West Bengal.
catch all business News, market news, today’s fresh news events and breaking news Updates on Live Mint. download mint news app To get daily market updates.