An Assessment of National Food

Security Act 2013: A Case Study of

Rajasthan

Mrs. Sapna Newar*

Mr. Yashwardhan Singh**

Introduction
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.

- The National Food Security Act, 2013

Cont..
Ancient literature has always enunciated that
providing food is one of the major responsibilities of
the state towards its people. But here the questions are

whether this philosophy is valid in todays economics?

Can the theory of state responsibility and freebies
be applied in the free market approach?
The main object of this paper is to provide solutions
for effective implementation of NFSA in Rajasthan.

National Food Security Act (NFSA),

2013
The present act classifies the population in the
following categories:
Excluded (i.e., no entitlement),
Priority (entitlement), further divided into APL
and BPL
Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY; Poorest of the
poor - higher entitlement).

Coverage of NFSA in Rajasthan

Rajasthan, being the second state after Haryana which has launched this
mammoth program, covering 4.64 crore people in the States population
of 6.86 crore.
Rajasthan is already providing wheat at Re. 1 per kg to 38.83 lakh
families under the BPL, State BPL and Antyodaya Anna Yojana.These
families will continue to get the food grain on the existing price, while 50
lakh additional families would get wheat at Rs. 2 per kg under the food
security scheme.
Government estimate indicates that 69.09 per cent of the rural population
and 53 per cent of the urban population in Rajasthan is set to benefit from
the ambitious scheme.
Here the question arises that covering such a large population is
economically and socially justifiable or not.

Number and Percentage of Population below

Poverty in Rajasthan for 2011-12 (Tendulkar
Methodology)
Rural

Urban

Total

% of

No. of

% of

No. of

% of

No. of

persons

persons

persons

persons

persons

persons

(Lakhs)

(Lakhs)

(Lakhs

Rajasthan

16.05

84.19

10.69

18.73

14.71

102.92

India

25.70

2166.58

13.70

531.25

21.92

2697.83

Position of Rajasthan in India State Hunger Index (ISHI)

Lacunae in the Implementation and Coverage of NFSA

UNICEF study reveals maximum under-nutrition in the five
Indian states: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar,
Rajasthan, and Orissa (Unicef 2010).
According to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, only 16% of the
resources allocated towards Indias food subsidized
distribution scheme reach the poor (The Economist 2010).
The criticisms of TPDS include the exclusion of a large
number of deserving households due to problems associated
with identification and exclusion (Saxena 2010).
According to Rajagopalan (2010), only 18 out of 31 states
had been surveyed to identify below poverty line (BPL)
families; in some states where surveys had been conducted,

Solution for Rajasthan: Chhattisgarh as a Model State

Problem of Identification: To solve the problem of fake ration
cards, Chhattisgarh government has created a centralized
database which helped eliminate 22.5 lakh fake ration cards.
Black marketing and unavailability of food: The second
important step was to computerize the movement of the
goods. The doorstep delivery system was put in place based on
demand and the trucks transported the goods to fair price
shops.
Transparency and Grievance Redressal: The public grievance
management system incorporated a call center with a toll free
number functioning for 12 hours.

National Food Security Ordinance vs Chhattisgarh Food

and Nutrition Security Act
National Food Security Ordinance

Chhattisgarh Food & Nutrition

Security Act

Benefit transfer

Direct Benefit Transfer or Conditional Cash

Transfer in lieu of food grain in future

Entitlement will remain in kind (food grain)

Consumer empowerment
Entitlement Portability

No provision

Right to choose FPS to lift entitlements

Provision for migrants to take ration during
migration

Community Kitchens

No entitlements on the ground that it is

difficult to identify eligible beneficiaries

Free meals through Annapurna Dal Bhat

centres or take home rations through
panchayats

Emergency and Disasters

No mention

Meals, free of charge for up to 3 months,

through emergency relief operations

People living with hunger/in starvation

conditions

No mention

Free meals for up to 6 months

Chhattisgarh National Food Security Act and

Demands of Right to Food Campaign
Demands of the
Right to Food
Campaign

National Food
Security
Ordinance

Public
Distribution
System
Coverage

Universal coverage

Nearly two-third
coverage

Public
Distribution
System
Entitlements

As per ICMR norms:

Food grains: 50 kg /
household/ month
Oil: 800
gm/adult/month or 2.8
kg/household/ month
Pulses:
1.5 kg/adult/month or
5.25 kg/ household/
month

25 kg of per
household
5 kg food
grains/person/
month for every
person covered
under the PDS
No provision for
pulse/oils

Chhattisgarh Food &

Nutrition Security Act

Nearly universal
close to 90% coverage

Food grains:
35 kg / household/ month
Pulses:
2 kg/adult/month
Salt :
2 kg iodised salt (free)

Conclusion
Simply wheat, rice and cereals at subsidized rate will not
help to overcome the delinquency of malnutrition that
plagues our nation. Still there is a lot to be done and to
be achieved in this direction to ensure that we are able to
accomplish what we intended to through this act.
Jean Dreze suggests the introduction of a quasiuniversal system based on specific inclusion criteria; as
well as a system of food coupons which possess a unique
identification number and hologram, extensively used in
Tamil Nadu is another method to track PDS grain to the
household level (Sebastian 2009).

Cont.
Saxena (2010) recommended the introduction of
technology such as digital cameras to monitor fair
price shops and storage facilities; development of an
effective redressal mechanism by the provision of a
toll free number in order to register complaints; and
the use of banking and information technology into
PDS operations to ensure transparency.
All these suggestions are fully or partially
incorporated by the Chattisgarh state.

Recommendations:
This NFSB bill should be linked with MNREGA.
More food processing units need to be established in the state.
As food processing units are more labour intentive, these units
will help in generation of more employment opportunities.
This should be the prime objective in order to bring selfsufficiency.
Food security bill is incomplete without ensuring access to
safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation. This needs to be
complimented with proper nutritional intake.
State needs to reduce the leakages in its PDS and through
computerization needs to make it more transparent. This can
be done by following Chattisgarh model.