The Union Budget 2024-25 makes no additional allocation for providing rations to eight crore migrant/unorganised sector workers left out of the food security net, despite repeated directions of the Supreme Court. The apex court, while dealing with a matter pertaining to distress faced by migrant workers during the COVID crisis, had taken cognisance of the fact that the coverage under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) has remained stagnant for more than a decade despite the increase in population, due to the failure of the Union government to conduct the decennial census after 2011.
Currently, around 81 crore people in India have ration cards and are provided 5 kgs of grain every month under the NFSA. This number was determined on the basis of the 2011 census, as the law states that up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population are to be covered based on the latest census. Perhaps the parliament did not anticipate a situation where the Union government would fail to carry out the decadal census – an exercise which has continued on schedule without interruptions since 1881. Had the 2021 census been published and the NFSA coverage revised accordingly, an estimated 10 crore people would have been added to the food security net.
While the current coverage of 81 crore people seems large, the COVID pandemic lays bare the huge gaps in the food security net. Lakhs of migrant workers started arduous journeys, walking hundreds of kilometres with their belongings and children in tow, as they faced imminent hunger and destitution upon imposition of the lockdowns and cessation of economic activity – as per a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report 74.1% of Indians were unable to afford a healthy diet during the pandemic. The apex court took suo motu cognisance of the distress and miseries being faced by migrants and issued several directions towards easing the hardships.
Taking note of the fact that crores of people are left out of the food security net as the coverage continues to be according to the 2011 census, the SC directed the Union government to undertake an exercise to re-determine the total number of people to be covered under the NFSA, and subsequently in 2022 asked the Union government to use the population projection numbers to revise coverage. However, the Union government was adamant that the coverage could only be increased after the census. It further submitted that the census of 2021 had been postponed indefinitely and no date had been notified regarding its publication.
Finally, in April 2023, noting that people could not be allowed to go hungry, the court directed that ration cards be issued to the eight crore migrants/unorganised sector workers who do not possess ration cards under NFSA and are registered on the E-shram portal (National Database of Unorganised Sector workers). This number was provided to the court by the Union government upon matching the registrants on the E-shram portal with the beneficiaries registered on the NFSA database.
In March 2024, the court further clarified that the issuance of ration cards should not be hampered by the exhaustion of the state-wise quotas and ceiling laid out in the NFSA. A week prior to the presentation of the Union budget, the court hauled up the Union and state governments for continued non-compliance with its orders. The SC directed all state governments to issue ration cards within 4 weeks to those eligible and directed the Union government to provide foodgrains to states/UTs for the additional ration cards.
It was anticipated that the budget would reflect the resources required for additional allocation of food grains as directed by the Supreme Court. It is, therefore, shocking to note that the budget for food subsidy has been slashed by 3.3% when compared to the revised estimate of the previous year – from 2.12 to 2.05 lakh crore!
According to the recently released Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) only 56% of Indians reported eating three meals a day, while a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that India had the largest number of zero-food children (6.7 million) among 92 countries surveyed.
The NFHS-5 showed alarming levels of stunting (35%) and wasting (19%) among children and anaemia among women (57%) and children (67%). At a time when issues of food insecurity and malnutrition ought to be treated as a national crisis and the government should be expanding the food security net and enhancing the food basket, the budget betrays the most marginalised in the country who are living with hunger and malnutrition.
Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri are associated with Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the Right to Food Campaign. Anjali is also one of the petitioners in the ongoing case in the Supreme Court.
