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Managerial Economics

Food Security in India

Why food security remains a concern in India, what food security means, the National Food Security Act 2013, and the programmes that deliver it, from PDS to mid-day meals.

By 5 min read

Food Sub­sidy and its imple­men­ta­tion is the ful­crum in Gov­ern­ment of India’s quest to attain Food Secu­rity for all its cit­i­zens. Here we look at the food sub­sidy, the Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem (PDS) and the chal­lenges in ensur­ing food secu­rity for Indi­a's cit­i­zens.

Food Secu­rity in India

Food secu­rity has been a major con­cern in India.

  1. Accord­ing to UN-India, there are nearly 195 mil­lion under­nour­ished peo­ple in India, which is a quar­ter of the world’s hunger bur­den.
  2. Roughly 43% of chil­dren in India are chron­i­cally under­nour­ished.
  3. Peo­ple Below Poverty Line in India decreased to around 22% in 2011-12. The Poverty per­cent­age was cal­cu­lated using the Ten­dulkar method­ol­ogy.
  4. India ranked 76th in 113 coun­tries assessed by The Global Food Secu­rity Index (GFSI) in the year 2018, based on the para­me­ters of afford­abil­ity, avail­abil­ity, and qual­ity and safety.
  5. As per 2020 coun­try rank­ings, India ranked 71st among 113 coun­tries in the GFSI.
  6. As per the Global Hunger Index, 2018, India was ranked 103rd out of 119 qual­i­fy­ing coun­tries.
  7. In the Global Hunger Index 2020, India was ranked 94th out of 107 coun­tries, behind Bangladesh, Pak­istan and Nepal.
  8. Accord­ing to FAO esti­mates in 'The State of Food Secu­rity and Nutri­tion in the World 2018' report, about 14.8% of the pop­u­la­tion is under­nour­ished in India.
  9. The State of Food Secu­rity and Nutri­tion in the World, 2020 report states that the preva­lence of under­nour­ish­ment in the total pop­u­la­tion in India declined from 21.7 % in 2004-06 to 14 % in 2017-19.

What is Food Secu­rity?

The Food and Agri­cul­tural Orga­ni­za­tion (FAO) states that food secu­rity emerges when all peo­ple at all times have phys­i­cal and eco­nomic access to suf­fi­cient, safe and nutri­tious food to meet their dietary needs and food pref­er­ences for an active and healthy life. Food secu­rity has three impor­tant and closely related com­po­nents, which are listed below,

  1. Avail­abil­ity of food
  2. Access to food
  3. Absorp­tion of food.

Laws on Food Secu­rity – India

In order to pro­vide the Right to food to every cit­i­zen of the coun­try, the Par­lia­ment of India, enacted leg­is­la­tion in 2013 known as the National Food Secu­rity Act, 2013. Also called the Right to Food Act, this Act seeks to pro­vide sub­sidised food grains to about two-thirds of Indi­a's pop­u­la­tion. Food Sub­sidy is the foun­da­tion on which the National Food Secu­rity Act 2013 is imple­mented in India.

National Food Secu­rity Bill, 2013

  1. This Bill was intro­duced in Lok Sabha on 7th August 2013
  2. It was passed in Lok Sabha on 26th August 2013.
  3. The National Food Secu­rity Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha on Sep­tem­ber 02, 2013.

Food Secu­rity Pro­grammes of India

  1. Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem. – A major chunk of Gov­ern­ment Expen­di­ture on Food Secu­rity is spent on Food Sub­si­dies which are imple­mented through the Tar­geted Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem.
  2. Mid Day Meal Scheme.
  3. Inte­grated Child Devel­op­ment Ser­vices Scheme.

The food man­age­ment sys­tem and food price pol­icy, to ensure food secu­rity in India thus con­sists of three major instru­ments,

  1. Pro­cure­ment at min­i­mum sup­port prices,
  2. The main­te­nance of buffer stocks, and the
  3. Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem.

Key terms

Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem (PDS)
The Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem evolved as a sys­tem of man­age­ment of scarcity through dis­tri­b­u­tion of food grains at afford­able prices.
Global Food Secu­rity Index (GFSI)
The Global Food Secu­rity Index con­sists of a set of indices from 113 coun­tries. It mea­sures food secu­rity across most of the coun­tries of the world.
Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­za­tion (FAO)
The Food and Agri­cul­ture Orga­ni­za­tion is a spe­cial­ized agency of the United Nations lead­ing inter­na­tional efforts to defeat hunger. FAO's goal is to achieve food secu­rity for all and make sure that peo­ple have reg­u­lar access to enough high-qual­ity food to lead active, healthy lives.
Tar­geted Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem (TPDS)
The Tar­geted Pub­lic Dis­tri­b­u­tion Sys­tem is an instru­ment of pub­lic pol­icy to pro­vide food secu­rity to the poor and vul­ner­a­ble sec­tions of the soci­ety from either the price shocks or sup­ply short­ages.
National Food Secu­rity Act (NFSA)
An Act to pro­vide for food and nutri­tional secu­rity in human life cycle approach, by ensur­ing access to ade­quate quan­tity of qual­ity food at afford­able prices to peo­ple to live a life with dig­nity and for mat­ters con­nected there­with or inci­den­tal thereto.

Com­mon ques­tions

Why do we need food secu­rity in India?

Food secu­rity in India is impor­tant so that every indi­vid­ual in the coun­try has easy access to safe and healthy food.

What are the main chal­lenges with food secu­rity in India?

The fol­low­ing are the major issues with food secu­rity in the coun­try:

  • Poverty
  • Pop­u­la­tion
  • Change in Cli­matic Con­di­tions
  • Inad­e­quate dis­tri­b­u­tion of food
  • Unmon­i­tored nutri­tion pro­grammes

What is the aim of the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund?

The Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund aims to reduce global poverty, encour­ag­ing inter­na­tional trade, and pro­mot­ing finan­cial sta­bil­ity and eco­nomic growth. The IMF has three main func­tions: over­see­ing eco­nomic devel­op­ment, lend­ing, and capac­ity devel­op­ment.

What are the major func­tions of the IMF?

(a) Pro­vid­ing short-term credit to mem­ber coun­tries.

(b) Main­tain­ing sta­bil­ity in the exchange rate of the mem­ber coun­tries.

(c) Fix­ing and alter­ing the value of a coun­try’s cur­rency when­ever required, to facil­i­tate the adjust­ment of exchange rate of mem­ber coun­tries.

(d) Col­lect­ing the cur­ren­cies of mem­ber coun­tries so as to allow them to bor­row the cur­rency of other nations.

(e) Lend­ing for­eign cur­rency to mem­ber nations and facil­i­tat­ing inter­na­tional pay­ments with respect to the exchange trans­ac­tions between mem­ber coun­tries.

What are the major affil­i­ated bod­ies of the World Bank?

Major affil­i­ated bod­ies of the World Bank are:

(i) Inter­na­tional Bank for Recon­struc­tion and Devel­op­ment (IBRD)

(ii) Inter­na­tional Finance Cor­po­ra­tion (IFC)

(iii) Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment Asso­ci­a­tion (IDA)

(iv) Mul­ti­lat­eral Invest­ment Guar­an­tee Agency (MIGA)

(v) Inter­na­tional Cen­tre for Set­tle­ment of Invest­ment Dis­putes (ICSID).

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