|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Union Budget 2023: A step backward for food & nutrition security in India
|
|
Thursday, 09 February, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Ashwin Bhadri
|
Right to Food campaign calls the union budget 2023, a betrayal to the people of India. The issues concerning the decrease in Government spending for various social sectors provisions have been voiced by the Right to Food campaign.
The group has urged opposition parties to bring up these concerns and speak up for the underprivileged and undocumented workers during the discussions on the budget in parliament.
In order to meet the core constitutional requirements of any democratically elected administration as well as towards a fairer growth path, the campaign has also demanded Government to re-evaluate the allocations made.
According to a report by Oxfam India, only 5% of Indians control more than 60% of the nation's wealth, while 50% of the population owns only 3%. As a result, India is experiencing severe inequality. Spending on social safety programmes like the PDS, anganwadis, pensions and MGNREGA became particularly crucial in this situation. However, the lack of responsibility displayed by Indian Government in this year's Union Budget has deceived the nation's hard-working citizens.
The Central Government policy decision, which will result in a 50% reduction in the ration entitlement for 81 crore people, is condemned by the Right to Food Campaign for its blatant insensitivity, the campaign stated in a statement.
MGNREGA, which directly creates jobs and also aids in the creation of rural assets, has been drastically reduced in this year's budget, thereby threatening millions of NREGA employees. Even though there are approximately Rs 216,000 crore in unpaid salaries, this year's budget allotment for MGNREGA is only Rs 60,000 crore, therefore the unpaid liabilities will probably increase to Rs 25,000 crore.
In their statement, the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha and the People's Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) called for an increase in the number of workdays and a Rs 2,73,000 crore NREGA budget for the fiscal year 2023–2024. According to the statement, NREGA's ongoing underfunding will cause significant delays in wage payments.
The organisation detailed how ration card holders received only 5 kgs of food per person instead of the 10 kgs they had previously received after the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was discontinued on January 1, 2023, and how the budget was "barely enough" to cover the requirements for the regular entitlements under the National Food Security Act. "Therefore, it was necessary to maintain the distribution of additional food grains under PMGKAY, expand the PDS to include people without ration cards, and distribute pulses and oils. But the budget has cut the funding for food subsidies by more over Rs 780,000 crore '' it continued.
This year, too, the allocations for Samarthya (including maternity benefits) and PM POSHAN (midday meals) have been drastically cut. The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) has significantly lowered social security pensions for the elderly, single women and disabled, which has had a substantial negative impact on the lives of the most marginalised group in society. The budget allocation for Samarthya's maternity benefits, such as PMMVY and other programmes, decreased this year, the campaign observed.
In her presentation of the Union Budget 2023–24, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman revealed a decrease of more than 32% or Rs 89,000 crore from the previous year for the food subsidies to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the subsidy for the NFSA's Decentralised Procurement of Food grains scheme, which totalled Rs 2,06,831 crore during the financial year 2022–23.
However, Sitharaman declared that despite the reduction in funding, the food distribution programme would continue. One could only be hopeful that the food distribution programmes would not be hampered and continue reaching the underprivileged masses.
(The author is founder and CEO at Equinox Lab)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|