The Food security bill passed by the government will give legal entitlement of cheaper food grains to about 63.5% of Indian population. This ideally should manifest in growth of Indian human capital, productive work force and skilled labor and long term growth of the economy. These people will work more efficiently, spend more and thus will domestically drive the Indian economy. But let me take you back six years. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was precisely meant to do so. NREGA was introduced with an aim to improve the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled workers. But did it do so? It was instead marred by corruption and middlemen taking advantage of office to deny legally entitled minimum wage. A business standard report mentioned the issuance of fake job cards, fake entries and threatening of workers to keep their mouth shut. Without addressing the learning from the mistakes done in the implementation of NREGA, the UPA II government primarily controlled by the congress party has passed the Food security bill. What is the guarantee that the legal entitlement to the poor will be adhered to?
Another serious concern is the huge amounts of money associated with the project. Food minister K V Thomas had said that the total financial liability to implement the law would be Rs 3.5 lakh crore, as funds would be required to raise agriculture production, create storage space and publicity among others. Each stage presents an opportunity for making easy money and there are no checks and provisions to prevent it. As a tax payer I would want my money to be utilized in an efficient manner and not for filling the pockets of babus. Although the need for food security in India is very high, next to health care, the manner in which it has been dealt shows lack of concern and callousness.
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