The Hindu : The right to adequate food

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 10, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

The right to adequate food

By Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay

What is really needed is the participation of civil society in planning, executing, monitoring and evaluating public policies relevant to the right to adequate food.

THE RIGHT to food is not just a basic human right but also a basic human need. It essentially requires the state to ensure at least that the people do not starve. States have to take all necessary steps towards fulfilling the right to adequate food. Under the Indian Constitution, there is no fundamental right to food but the fulcrum of justiciability of the right to food comes from a much broader "right to life and liberty" as enshrined in Article 21. In fact, the basis of the much talked about petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) against the Union of India is Article 21. The petition drew attention to the fact that over 50 million tonnes of foodgrains were lying idle in FCI godowns against the backdrop of widespread hunger in the country, especially in the drought-affected areas of Rajasthan and Orissa. This led to an interim Supreme Court order directing the States to implement fully eight different centrally-sponsored schemes on food security and to introduce cooked midday meals in all Government and Government-assisted schools.

India does not seem to have any problem in terms of physical availability as the foodgrains production is more than adequate as evident from the overflowing godowns. Accessibility is the problem. This has two elements: physical accessibility and economic accessibility. There is a network of half-a-million fair price shops to make foodgrains physically available to Indian households. However, the public distribution system is grossly flawed. Field investigations by various NGOs in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan revealed that large numbers of cardholders are ignorant of their entitlements.

The principal constraint in realising the right to adequate food is economic accessibility or affordability. This brings to the fore two main issues: (1) the price of the foodgrains and (2) the economic means to exercise `command' over the food. The food subsidy bill of the Centre and States together exceeds Rs. 30,000 crores a year. But the subsidy is inherently biased towards the producers and does not cater to the needy consumers in the form of reduced prices on foodgrains. Compounding this, the PDS dealers charge inflated prices even for the BPL and the Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cardholders. On the question of economic means, the realisation of the right to food involves the right to work. The relief or ad hoc employment provided to farmers during the lean season or to landless labourers and tribals for a short duration does not bring enough money — to feed themselves or their families adequately. To ensure the right to adequate food there has to be an Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) such as in Maharashtra and it has to be legally binding.

Another important issue is the interface between the right to food and the right to health on the notion of `adequacy'. According to Asjborn Eide, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Right to Food, once foodstuffs are physically available, they have to satisfy the dietary needs (energy and nutrients) to qualify as adequate. The latest NSS Report shows that the calorie intake of the poorest 30 per cent of the population falls short of the dietary intake recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The Second National Family Health Survey Report (1998-99) shows that 47 per cent of Indian children are under nourished, and that 36 per cent and 52 per cent of Indian women suffer from chronic energy deficiency and anaemia respectively.

The alarming nutritional status of women and children in India is primarily attributed to chronic hunger. The nutritional status of women also has a direct bearing on the weight of children. About 34 per cent of all newborn infants have low birth weight. It has serious consequences in terms of high infant mortality and morbidity and vulnerability to cardiovascular disorders in adulthood. To do away with this chronic under-nourishment, adequate food with all dietary elements is not enough. Adequate food must be accompanied by a provision for adequate health care.

An assessment of the initiatives of the Centre and the State Governments to satisfy the right to adequate food after the Supreme Court's interim order makes it clear that the state has failed in various ways to protect, facilitate and provide adequate food. The food security schemes specified in the interim order are not functioning in many States. The States blame it on lack of resources, which is only partly true. If the States claim their inability to fulfil their obligations for reasons beyond their control, they have to show that they have done everything in their power to ensure that people have access to adequate food.

The starvation deaths in Orissa's Kashipur village bear testimony to a clear lack of political will and seriousness on the part of the States along with corrupt local governments and the bureaucracy. A survey undertaken in Kashipur after the reports of starvation deaths showed that poor tribal families had been declared above the poverty line (APL) while the network of local government and traders siphoned off the grains meant for BPL (below poverty line) families under the targeted public distribution system (TDPS).

In his report to the Supreme Court submitted on October 29, 2002, N. C. Saxena, Commissioner of the Supreme Court, stated that Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat had not responded to the queries regarding PDS foodgrains not reaching the poor and had not provided any feedback on the status of compliance with the order on introduction of midday meals or on the status of the process of identification of the poor for BPL ration cards. The report reaffirms the States' lacklustre approach in eliminating with hunger and starvation and ensuring the right to adequate food.

An important instrument in asserting the right to adequate food is legal action. Of late, the Supreme Court has started entertaining Public Interest Litigation highlighting questions of public importance. The PIL filed by the PUCL against the Union of India (SCC 196 of 2001) is one such celebrated petition on the violation of the right to food. However, such legal action does not touch upon all aspects of the right to food. The role of civil society is of paramount importance. Article 10 (Part IV) of the International Code of Conduct on the right to adequate food mentions that the active participation of all civil society actors — individuals, families, local communities or non-governmental organisations — is essential. Recently, social mobilisation has begun in the form of public hearings. Public pressure through public hearing is effective in asserting the right to food. However, what is really needed is the participation of civil society in planning, executing, monitoring and evaluating public policies relevant to the right to adequate food. Only a participatory approach will be able to give a more humane shape and the much needed rights perspective to the Government's policies in ensuring food and nutrition security.

Moreover, there should be due recognition of the fact that all pivotal rights such as the right to food, right to health, right to education or any economic and social rights, for that matter, are interdependent. For example, providing sufficient food to do away with under-nutrition will not really eliminate the chronic health disorders that have already set in. Providing adequate health care is necessary. Similarly, to realise the right to food people should have access to education and information. Last but not the least, the process of realisation of the right to adequate food should not violate any other socio-economic or civil and political rights.

(The writer is a researcher at the Centre for Development and Human Rights, New Delhi.)

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