give reasons to argue for the statement of PDS can ensure better food security for people
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Food insecurity for the poor and vulnerable sections of both rural and urban areas of India, which had been a chronic problem since independence, aggravated alarmingly since the inception of the Economic Reforms in 1991. Slow growth of agriculture in the face of rapid growth of population has no doubt intensified the problem but deeper analysis would reveal that the main cause of food insecurity of the majority of the population in India lies not in supply failure but in increasing unemployment, rapid fall in income of the poor in the rural and urban areas and the miserable failure of the PDS in India.
Since 1951, food production increased almost steadily (except for a few bad years) and overstepped the growth rate of population and the Buffer Stock of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) exceeded the required minimum except for the last few years. Still food insecurity increased during the 1990s although there had been a falling trend during the 1980s.
If we look at the buffer stock position of the FCI we come across a paradoxical situation. On the one hand buffer stock has been more than sufficient till 2006 to meet the requirements. For the last few years it has fallen marginally below the minimum required,
which could be met by food imports. On the other hand intensity of food insecurity of the vulnerable segments of rural and urban population has been continuously increasing ever since the 1990s. The percentage of hungry people fell marginally during the period but absolute number increased considerably.
So it becomes clear that supply deficiency is not the basic cause of hunger and food insecurity of the majority of the population. Historical evidence also shows that famines and food insecurity in India in the past arose not because of supply failure but because of wrong policy of the government. Amartya Sen has shown that during the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, there was no scarcity of food grains (Sen 1999).
After independence India has not experienced any acute food crisis in the form of famine which had been a recurrent catastrophe during the British regime, but we have been inflicted with chronic hunger which has been intensified since the 1990s. Here also the basic cause does not lie in supply deficiency but in wrong policy of the government in two ways. First, the policy of liberalization has resulted in fall of income and employment of the vulnerable segments of population and second, the PDS and other safety measures for the poor have become less efficient. So in brief, the basic reason for the recent increasing trend of food insecurity are:
i) Falling income and employment of the poor
ii) Failure of the PDS
In this paper we are going to take up the second factor. The rest of the paper is organized in the following manner: Section-2: Food Insecurity in India; Section-3: PDS in India and Its Failure; Section-4: Conclusion
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Since 1951, food production increased almost steadily (except for a few bad years) and overstepped the growth rate of population and the Buffer Stock of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) exceeded the required minimum except for the last few years. Still food insecurity increased during the 1990s although there had been a falling trend during the 1980s.
If we look at the buffer stock position of the FCI we come across a paradoxical situation. On the one hand buffer stock has been more than sufficient till 2006 to meet the requirements. For the last few years it has fallen marginally below the minimum required,
which could be met by food imports. On the other hand intensity of food insecurity of the vulnerable segments of rural and urban population has been continuously increasing ever since the 1990s. The percentage of hungry people fell marginally during the period but absolute number increased considerably.
So it becomes clear that supply deficiency is not the basic cause of hunger and food insecurity of the majority of the population. Historical evidence also shows that famines and food insecurity in India in the past arose not because of supply failure but because of wrong policy of the government. Amartya Sen has shown that during the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, there was no scarcity of food grains (Sen 1999).
After independence India has not experienced any acute food crisis in the form of famine which had been a recurrent catastrophe during the British regime, but we have been inflicted with chronic hunger which has been intensified since the 1990s. Here also the basic cause does not lie in supply deficiency but in wrong policy of the government in two ways. First, the policy of liberalization has resulted in fall of income and employment of the vulnerable segments of population and second, the PDS and other safety measures for the poor have become less efficient. So in brief, the basic reason for the recent increasing trend of food insecurity are:
i) Falling income and employment of the poor
ii) Failure of the PDS
In this paper we are going to take up the second factor. The rest of the paper is organized in the following manner: Section-2: Food Insecurity in India; Section-3: PDS in India and Its Failure; Section-4: Conclusion
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