Daily Archives: December 7, 2010

Government Bill Draft:

• Covers Below Poverty Line (BPL) families

• Defines women as head of household

• Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) to allocate the grain

• Ensures 25 kg of food grains for Rs. 3 per kilo to each family per month

• Central Government responsible for identifying poverty levels and allocating food or money to state governments

• State Governments responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the resources

• Panchayati Raj institutions and the formation of vigilance committees

  The National Advisory Council’s (NAC) recommendations:

• Should ensure subsidised food grains for minimum 75 % of the population

• Should include a division of “priority households” and “general households”

• Priority households: monthly entitlement of 35 kg at a subsidised price of Rs. 1 a kg for millets, Rs. 2 a kg for wheat and Rs. 3 a kg for rice.

• General households: monthly entitlement of 20 kg at a price not exceeding 50 % of the current Minimum Support Price for the three grains.

National Binding Obligations:

• Article 47 of Indian constitution: Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health

• Article 21 of Indian Constitution: Protection of Life and Personal Liberty

• The National Human Rights Act 1993: to respect, protect and promote human rights in India

  India: Signatory of International Human Rights Agreements:

• UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): right to adequate standard of living

• The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1979): right to adequate food and freedom from hunger

• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1992)

• Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1993)

• Millennium Development Goals (2000): halve the proportion of people living with hunger by 2015

• FAO (2004)
  Right to Food Guidelines:
  Freedom from hunger and right to food

FIAN – Fighting Hunger with Human Right and civil society groups:

The Bill:

• Must be universal

• Must contain the provision of nutritionally adequate food. A purely quantitative provision do not cover a human being’s needs

• Must provide more than 25 kg of grain per household

• Must ensure government responsibility for securing people’s livelihood

• Must ensure government responsibility for allocating the necessary resources

• Must ensure 80 % local food production – reduce wastage

• Must secure farmers’ right to land and protect land from non-agricultural use and private investments

• Must ensure government responsibility for securing people’s livelihoods. This involve producing food indigenously, adequate wages and full employment to all and access to production resources

• Must institute a national monitoring mechanism – linked to prime minister’s office

• Must set up a special authority, commission or courts with responsibility of monitoring the implementation of rights and entitlements