Taking the lead in setting the agenda for UPA II, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to fulfill the party?s poll promise of food security for all. This is Sonia?s first letter to the PM in his second term as head of the UPA government.
In her letter to the PM dated June 12, Sonia writes: ??one of the most prominent and important commitments made by our party in the 2009 Lok Sabha election manifesto relates to the enactment of a NFSA to ensure food security to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. I am sending a copy of draft legislation for your consideration?.
The draft ?Right to Food (Guarantee of Safety and Security) Act? proposes making freedom from hunger and malnutrition a fundamental right. It will ?provide for and assert the physical, economic and social right of all citizens to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with an adequate diet necessary to lead an active and healthy life with dignity??
Beneficiary households will include those headed by single women, adults with leprosy, HIV or mental illness, bonded labour, destitutes dependent on alms for survival for 20 days a month, vulnerable landless agricultural workers or self-employed artisans, elders living alone or with dependents, and, rag pickers, construction workers, street vendors, cycle rickshaw drivers and domestic workers, among others.
A country-wide survey will be conducted every five years to identify the needy who will be issued targeted photo-id cards after consultation with local bodies.
The draft law offers 35 kg of cereal at Rs 3 per kg each month to an expanded set of beneficiaries that would include destitute and vulnerable households besides families below the poverty line (BPL) and those eligible under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana.
Those aged above 65 years, single women and disabled people would have the option to partake of meals at ICDS centres or mid-day meals in schools.
The act also provides for special ID cards to all households affected by natural disasters and communal riots where entitlements available under NREGA employment, pension and supplementary nutrition under ICDS would be doubled for one year.
The proposed scheme also covers:
* Admission to all school-age children of identified families in government schools.
* Doubling of the quota of food for children below six years, mothers and adolescent girls.
* Doubling of the quota of maternity entitlements to all pregnant and lactating mothers in these households.
* Coverage to the elderly, widows and disabilities pension at the maximum scale prevailing in the state.
While the state has to ensure uninterrupted supply of food grain through the public distribution system (PDS), a vigil would be kept on distribution through quarterly meetings between shopowners and representatives of local bodies.
States would have to fully computerise their PDS within two years of the law and they ?shall provide a toll-free number and a website where consumers can register their complaints. All complaints shall be addressed within 39 days of receipt and records of the same shall be made available in the public domain, including the internet,? says the draft law.