Amartya Sen:India can make up for the revenue spent on the food security bill by ending tax breaks given to the gem and jewelry industry
NEW DELHI—India has decided to introduce one of the most ambitious food aid programs ever attempted, adding the right to food to others enshrined in Indian law such as free speech and equality of all citizens.
Noah Seelam/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A tradesman takes lentil samples at the wholesale market in Hyderabad, in this file photo.
The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which pushed through the National Food Security Law by executive order on Wednesday while Parliament was in recess, will spend $4 billion or more a year under the program to distribute cheap grains to around 70% of India's 1.2 billion people.
The executive order will need to be approved by the Indian president, which is a formality.
The legislation has sparked debate in India between those who say it is a way to eradicate deep rural poverty and others who want the state to instead focus on creating jobs and better infrastructure like irrigation facilities in remote areas.
Parliament, which is due to come back into session at the end of July or early August, needs to pass the bill by a simple majority for it to become law. That is expected to happen as few politicians want to oppose such legislation before a number of state polls this year and national elections, which must be held by May 2014.
Few countries have embarked on such an ambitious mission. India has about a third of the world's extreme poor, according to the World Bank. About half of children below five suffer from malnutrition and a third of women are underweight, according to the Indian government's National Family Health Survey.
"In terms of nutrition indicators, India is very far behind. The food security bill is an opportunity to address these gaps, and to create a political momentum for further action," said Jean Dreze, a development economist and an honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics.
Amartya Sen, an Indian Nobel-prize-winning economist who is an expert on rural poverty, has argued that India could easily make up for the revenue spent on the food security bill by ending tax breaks given to the gem and jewelry industry.
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