Food rights activists have pointed out major flaws in the government's draft of the national food security bill, especially with regards to the policy provisions for children. A letter from the activists is reproduced below:

The Working Group for Children Under Six (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan - Right to Food Campaign) is appalled by the scant regard for children in the draft national food security bill of the government of India that has been approved by the empowered group of ministers (EGOM).

Not only does this draft do grave injustice to people’s food security in general, it does not ascertain the right of children to food security. It appears that the government does not consider the specific issues related to the food security of children, who form about 40% of the population, or the vast problem of malnutrition among them, to have any significance to the ‘Nation’. While the NAC draft had at least given due consideration to food entitlements for children, this draft is a pathetic attempt to pass off some expansion of the targeted PDS as a National Law protecting national food security.

Though the bill begins with the laudable objective “…to provide food and nutritional security, in human life cycle approach ....” this is defeated almost entirely in its definitions and provisions. The ‘life cycle’ starts at birth, and the recommended ‘food’ for babies under the age of six months is breast milk alone. How does the Bill support this critical age which forms the foundation of the child’s entire physical, cognitive and social development and is also the phase in which malnutrition tends to set in? The provision of maternity entitlements as social support to breast feeding is available for women working in the central government in the form of maternity leave for 6 months at full pay. By providing for maternity entitlements, the NAC draft recognised this as a critical legal entitlement for over 15 crore women working in the informal sector and the food security of very young children. However, the draft of the ministry has entirely struck it off.

Similarly, the current legal guarantee of ‘hot cooked meals’ for children attending anganwadis has been diluted by providing the option of ‘Ready to Eat Foods’ in this draft which suggests that the Bill is more about creating markets and protecting corporate interests than the interests of children. Even for the guarantee of supplementary food, there are no minimum norms or standards in contrast with the NAC draft (and Supreme Court orders), where minimum norms were spelt out.

Other important entitlements related to management of severe malnutrition, nutritional counselling and other programmatic issues requiring legal guarantees have also been wholly omitted. What has been retained is just lip service to some cursory and ill defined entitlements to additional food.

In summary, the draft Bill goes out of its way to minimize the government’s responsibilities, restrict children’s entitlements, and avoid any accountability. Everything that could have any real impact is left to the discretion of the central government, including even the sharing of cost between centre and states. Further, there are no accountability provisions – the entire grievance redressal process proposed by the NAC has been discarded and replaced with token provisions. Contrary to the government’s claim that this draft Bill is based on the NAC draft, it actually removes or dilutes most of the core principles of the NAC’s modest proposal.

The group demands that any food Bill should lead to total food and nutrition security of ALL children, who are always being pronounced the future of the nation yet ignored by this Bill. This is the opportunity for the government of India to fulfill children’s right to food, and overcome the scourge of malnutrition which has become a national shame and should have been an important focus of the Bill.

We are,

Arun Gupta, Biraj Patnaik, Devika Singh, Dipa Sinha, Jean Drèze, Radha Holla, Sachin Jain, Samir Garg, Sejal Dand, T. Sundararaman, Vandana Prasad and Veena Shatrugna

For further details contact: Vandana Prasad ([email protected]) or Dipa Sinha ([email protected])