NHRC meeting to discuss the status of the Right to Food, Nutrition and related policies concludes with several key observations and suggestions (10.08.21)

New Delhi, 10th August, 2021

A meeting, organized by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC India today, to discuss the status of the policies to ensure Right to Food, Nutrition, and the implementation thereof, concluded with several key observations and suggestions.

Chairing the meeting, the NHRC Member, Mr. Rajiv Jain said that the Right to Food, besides being a statutory right also needs to be looked into with a human rights perspective. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, different international Covenants as well as the Sustainable Development Goals have underlined its importance. Therefore, food grain availability, sustainability and its supply towards seeking zero hunger needs to be assessed and evaluated on time to time to find gaps, if any, in policies and implementation thereof with some concrete suggestions, which can be further deliberated upon by the Commission for recommendations to the Government.

Earlier, NHRC Secretary General, Mr. Bimbadhar Pradhan, triggering the discussions in the inaugural session, said that the Covid-19 Pandemic has once again drawn the attention to address different aspects of access and portability of food entitlements. The One Nation One Ration Card is a game changer in our journey of ‘Right to Food’ in its entirety.

Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution, Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said that despite challenges, the Centre, in coordination with all its concerned Ministries and States, is making an all-out effort to ensure food security in terms of coverage of people, quality thereof, scale of food distribution, portability of transaction etc. He said that as per the 2011 census, 81.3 Crore, which constitutes bottom of 67% of population as per the National Food Security Act, 2013, has been covered. For about two crore remaining population, States need to chip in. However, the real challenge on the ground is using technology for food distribution but so far the results have been encouraging in identifying the real beneficiaries out of those holding bogus ration cards.

Mr. Pandey said that the Government has launched an App- “Mera Ration” in 11 languages, and in 3 months it has seen 15 lakh downloads. This has been made to ensure smooth portability of transaction, especially for those, who have been migrating from one place to another. However, he said food security may not be enough unless the nutritional security is ensured for which the Government is committed. In addition to the inaugural session, the meeting was divided into three thematic sessions, including Nutrition of pregnant women, lactating mothers and children below 6 years and 6-14 years and One Nation One Ration Card Scheme (ONORC) implementation, challenges and way forward.

Apart from NHRC Member, Mr. Justice M.M Kumar, Mr. R.K Khandelwal, Additional Secretary, senior officers and Core Group members, the participants included senior officers and representatives of the Union Ministries and departments, experts and different stakeholders.

Some of the other important suggestions that emerged during the discussions were as follows:

• There is a need to introduce a policy for the urban poor and migrants on the lines of MGNREGA;

• States need to monitor data on transferring of food grains to all the vulnerable sections, including the SC/ST;

• Strengthen ICDS in terms of expanding its reach, adequate finances and staff & their wages;

• Extend the Mid-Day Meal Scheme to the students upto XII standard from the existing VIII standard;

• Popularize benefits of breastfeeding;

• Besides Wheat and Rice, include supply of pulses, millets and edible oil in diets, regulate junk food including labeling of high sugar and salt contents therein;

• Include all children and not just the first born for the benefits under PMGKAY;

• Open Aanganwadi centers as early as possible and allow the local guidelines to decide on the menu so that fortification of food items doesn’t become counterproductive;

• Cancellation process of bogus ration cards needs to be handled with sensitivity so as to ensure no genuine beneficiary is excluded;

• Insistence of Aadhar Card linkage with the ration card is restricting the intent of PMGKAY;

• Focus should also be on those who are not PDS beneficiaries;

• With the digitization of services, the connectivity thereof is an issue in far flung areas, which needs to be looked into to ensure proper distribution to the beneficiaries;

• Coverage under PDS needs to be increased as One Nation One Ration Card as of now covers only those whose Aadhar Cards, which have been seeded with the PDS;

• Simplify guidelines and think of a system not exclusively based on Aadhar and Smart Cards.

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