Civil

National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) implemented throughout India

04.11.2016

The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) is finally implemented throughout all the territories of India including all States and Union Territories. Earlier, three states could not implement the scheme under the Act but now the Act is implemented throughout India which will benefit the public at large.

The National Food Security Act, 2013 came into existence in the month of September 2013 and has been passed by the legislature with the object of providing 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. In other words, the Act has been brought to supply the subsidized foodgrains with the target food security of the entitled quantity of foodgrains and meal to the households as covered under the Act. As per the Act, the entitlements of the persons belonging to the eligible households at subsidised prices shall extend up to seventy-five per cent of the rural population and up to fifty per cent of the urban population. As a result, 81.34 crore persons will get subsidised wheat at Rs. 2 per kg and rice at Rs. 3 per kg. At the current coverage, the monthly allocation of foodgrains to States and UTs under the Act is about 45.5 lakh tonnes. The subsidy implication of about Rs. 11,726 crore per month and it is overall about Rs. 1,40,700 crore per year.

The Act is also important from another aspect as it provides greater leap in providing Women Empowerment. As per the Act, the eldest woman who is not less than eighteen years of age, in every eligible household, shall be head of the household for the purpose of issue of ration cards. It further provides that, where a household at any time does not have a woman or a woman of eighteen years of age or above, but has a female member below the age of eighteen years, then, the eldest male member of the household shall be the head of the household for the purpose of issue of ration card and the female member, on attaining the age of eighteen years, shall become the head of the household for such ration cards in place of such male member. Thus, the act also promotes women empowerment and encourages wider participation of women across all sections of the society.

The NFS ACT also provides for certain entitlements for every child up to the age of fourteen years for his nutritional needs, namely that in the case of children in the age group of six months to six years, age appropriate meal, free of charge, through the local anganwadi so as to meet the specified nutritional standards and further in the case of children, up to class VIII or within the age group of six to fourteen years, whichever is applicable, one mid-day meal, free of charge, everyday, except on school holidays, in all schools run by local bodies, Government and Government aided schools, so as to meet the specified nutritional standards. The act further provides that every school and anganwadi shall have facilities for cooking meals, drinking water and sanitation.

However, the said Act being one of the most ambitious project of the Union of India would also requires greater precautions and safeguards from acts of corruption etc. and in this regard the Act also provides for the reforms which , inter alia, include doorstep delivery of foodgrains to the Targeted Public Distribution System outlets; application of information and communication technology tools including end-to-end computerisation in order to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels, and to prevent diversion; leveraging ''aadhaar'' for unique identification, with biometric information of entitled beneficiaries for proper targeting of benefits under this Act; full transparency of records; preference to public institutions or public bodies such as Panchayats, self help groups, co-operatives, in licensing of fair price shops and management of fair price shops by women or their collectives; diversification of commodities distributed under the Public Distribution System over a period of time; support to local public distribution models and grains banks; introducing schemes, such as, cash transfer, food coupons, or other schemes, to the targeted beneficiaries in order to ensure their foodgrain entitlements as specified. Act, therefore is a major step in providing security of food to larger portion of population and helps in dealing the malnutrition and other social problems.

Tags : Act Food security Implementation

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