Sonia Gandhi wants to make sure that no one goes hungry in the country. But many in the government don't seem to have an appetite for the plan
The World’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: An economic superpower but a nutritional weakling. That’s how the Institute of Development Studies in the UK described India. To hammer the point in, the International Food policy Research Institute ranked India 66 out of 88 nations on its Global Hunger Index in 2008. That means, while India has a better food policy than Bangladesh, we are worse off than Sub-Saharan countries like Kenya, Cameroon and the war-torn regions of the Congo and Sudan.
The Congress Party under Sonia Gandhi is trying to improve the situation, but it is facing opposition from several fronts including its own government.
Preliminary estimates suggest the government will likely save at least Rs. 9,000 crore per year by reducing the prices and amount of grains. That is nearly a sixth of what food minister Sharad Pawar expects the government to spend on food subsidy this year. More money would be saved by restricting the number of beneficiaries.
A Finger on the Pulse
The reason why the Congress pushes for the rights-based approach at the Centre is the same that prompts some states to expand public distribution programmes beyond what the Centre requires them to: Giving rights to the people is politically profitable.
(This story appears in the 25 September, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)