Jean Drèze is one of those development economists who have gone way beyond classrooms and seminars and helped shape policies. He has worked with Amartya Sen as well as served as a member of the previous National Advisory Council. Drèze shared his views on food security with Prasanna Mohanty.

Are you in favour of direct cash transfer to overcome problems in the PDS?
I don’t think that the system is ready for a transition from food-based transfers to cash transfers. The most needy people are also the most excluded from the financial system. Also, food is more likely to be well used than cash. Food grain is something everyone needs and the PDS infrastructure is largely in place – better improve it than make a Quixotic rush to cash transfers.

Will direct cash transfer in any way harm agriculture production, affect small and marginal farmers or hit our ability to intervene at the time of crisis?
There is no reason why cash transfers would be harmful in this respect, provided that buffer stocks and price stabilisation operations continue. But the fact is that these operations tend to be tied to the PDS, and to that extent, if the PDS were to be replaced with cash transfers, there could be adverse impacts on, say, the procurement system. But this is not the main issue – the main issue is the continuing relevance of the PDS.

What measures are needed to achieve food security?
Food security in the broad sense of nutrition security requires a wide range of interventions, concerned not only with food entitlements but also other requirements of good nutrition such as clean water, health care, effective breastfeeding and so on.

In a country where half of all children are undernourished, there is no quick fix. The proposed Food Security Bill cannot address all these issues, but at the very least, it should guarantee substantial food entitlements, going much beyond existing schemes and Supreme Court orders. The current draft is a non-starter in that respect.