Skip to main content

Food security? 15 lakh people of Gujarat's 10 backward districts 'taken off' subsidy list

By Pankti Jog*

If a reply received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act is to be believed, a whopping 3.96 lakh ration cards have been deleted from the National Food Security Act (NFSA) benefit in Gujarat. This comes to over 15 lakh people, all of them belonging to tribal and backwards areas. They have been thrown out of the subsided ration cover despite the current Covid situation.
As per NFSA, passed in 2013 in Parliament, 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population can be covered for subsidized ration for which entire expenses are too be given by the Central government.
Every person in the identified household are entitled to get 5 kg of ration, 3.5 kg of wheat at the rate of Rs.2/kg and 1.5 kg of rice at the rate of Rs.3/kg. As NFSA is connecting right to food with right to life, which is a fundamental right, it also covers food security provisions for infants, children, students in schools under mid-day meal school and out-of-school adolescent age girls, along with the public distribution system.
In Gujarat, NFSA implementation began on April 1, 2016, and 3.41 crore people have been identified for subsidized ration (per person 5 kg) along with 8 lakh most poor (Antyodaya) families (42 lakh people), to whom 35 kg of ration is given per month per family. Thus 3.82 crore people are being covered under NFSA with the support of the Government of India. No separate state budget is available for subsidized ration.
Recently, the RTI helpline run by the Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) started getting frequent calls about names of the families being deleted from the priority household list. As deletion was also noticed from tribal and poor blocks, MAGP decided to file an RTI plea to get the exact number of people/ration cards that were deleted since 2016.
To our surprise, the statistics of 38 blocks, which are currently available with us, show that more than 3.96 lakh cards have been removed from the “priority household” lists, thereby excluding them from the subsidized ration support. These are from 10 districts, which included backward ones, Dang, Navsari, Tapi, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Dahod, from where people had complained about the same at block and district levels.
People complained that their names have been removed just because they raised their voice against inadequate quota or quality of ration
People complained that their names have been removed just because they raised their voice against inadequate quota or quality of ration. Large number of cards have been made silent because cardholders could t go to collect their ration as they had migrated to another city in search of work. Officials told our helpline that there is no circular regarding procedure of putting cards into the “silent mode”, or re-activating them thereafter.
RTI response from 38 blocks revealed that in the year 2016-17, as many 80,000 cards were removed or deleted from the “priority household” list, which forms the NFSA cover. The figures for 2018-19 is 42,000, for 2018-19 it is 1.86 lakh, and for 2019-20 it is 70,000. This has been done despite the fact that the process of putting ration cards into the silent category, or deletion, after separating them following change in address, is not unacceptable under the law.
It should further be noted that the Government of India gives ration support for 3.84 crore people. However, the Gujarat government distributes ration to 3.21 crore people. As many as 60 lakh people are being unnecessarily being excluded.
During the pandemic situation, such exclusion is inhuman. It is also denial of one’s right to life. In fact, looking at the malnourishment situation in Gujarat, the state should seek more than what it is being offered by the Centre. The state government should point that Gujarat’s 4.11 crore people are entitled to get ration as per NFSA.
---
*Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, Ahmedabad

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Chinese pressure? Left stateless, Rohingya crisis result of Myanmar citizenship law

By Dr Shakuntala Bhabani*  A 22-member team of Myanmar immigration officials visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to verify more than 400 Rohingya refugees as part of a pilot repatriation project. Does it hold out any hope for the forcibly displaced people to return to their ancestral homes in the Rakhine state of Myanmar? Only time will tell.

China ties up with India, Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingyas; Myanmar unwilling

By Harunur Rasid*  We now have a new hope, thanks to news reports that were published in the Bangladeshi dailies recently. Myanmar has suddenly taken initiatives to repatriate Rohingyas. As part of this initiative, diplomats from eight countries posted in Yangon were flown to Rakhine last week. Among them were diplomats from Bangladesh, India and China.

40,000 Odisha adolescent girls ask CM: Why is scheme to fight malnutrition on paper?

By Our Representative  In unique a postcard campaign to combat malnutrition, aimed at providing dietary diversity, considered crucial during adolescence, especially among girls, signed by about 40,000 adolescent girls from over 10,000 villages, have reminded Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik that his government's Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), which converged with Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman  ( POSHAN ) 2.0 in 2021, is not being implemented in the State.

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.