aditya
13:49
📰 Record foodgrain exports amid widespread hunger criticised
It exposes the government’s apathy towards the people, says Right to Food Campaign
•The record export of foodgrains at a time of widespread hunger and distress due to COVID-19 exposes “the government’s apathy towards the people”, according to the Right to Food Campaign. The advocacy group has called for the universalisation of the public distribution system (PDS) for at least six months, noting that the quantity of exported grain could have been used to provide 25 crore people with rations for a year.
•The surge of COVID-19, spread to rural areas and lockdowns in most parts of the country have led to severe economic distress, especially among informal sector workers, said the Right to Food Campaign’s statement, issued on Monday. It said the situation was worse than in 2020, due to the large number of households now dealing with illness and high healthcare expenses on top of a year of job losses and declining wages.
•The Centre’s relief scheme, PMGKAY, only provides additional free grain for two months for those who already have ration cards. The food security crisis facing informal sector workers, many of whom do not have ration cards, has been “completely invisibilised”, said the statement.
•“The government’s apathy towards people has been thoroughly exposed by the fact that this year has seen record exports of foodgrains.” Noting that over 13 million tonnes of non-basmati rice and more than two million tonnes of wheat were exported in 2020-21, the Campaign said this could have been used to give 5 kg grain per month to 25 crore people for a year. In fact, rice was exported at ₹27 per kg, lower than the FCI’s economic cost of ₹37 per kg, it said.
•Foodgrain stocks in FCI’s warehouses stand at a record high of 100 million tonnes. “It is becoming quite apparent that the government does not care about filling the stomachs of the hungry and is happy to rather export the grains or use them for other purposes [like it was done for ethanol production last year],” said the Campaign.
•Currently, about 80 crore people are covered under the PDS and receive 5 kg of subsidised grain per month. Under PMGKAY, an additional 5 kg is provided free of cost. The Campaign demanded that these benefits are universalised for at least six months, given that the pandemic’s effects are long lasting, so that those in distress without ration cards can also find relief. It also called for 1.5 kg of pulses and 800 gmsof cooking oil to be distributed under the PDS.
📰 SC irked by absence of migrant database
Provision of food for labourers need not wait until completion of registration, says court
•The government’s delay in completing a national database to identify and register migrant workers in order to provide them benefits in times of dire need stood out like a sore thumb in a Supreme Court hearing on Monday.
•“We impress upon the Central government and the State Government[s] to complete the process of registration of organised workers at an early date so that unorganised workers are able to reap the benefit of different schemes of the Centre and the States which, without proper registration and identity card, seems to be difficult to implement on the ground,” a Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and M.R. Shah noted in its order.
•The court acknowledged the submissions made by advocate Prashant Bhushan that such a database would have made it easier for the government to identify and provide essentials such as food and dry rations to stranded migrant labourers during the second wave of the pandemic.
•“The direction [for the database] was issued by this court in 2018...Your process is very slow. We are not satisfied. We will pass orders on this,” Justice Bhushan addressed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre.
•Mr. Bhushan, who represents activists seeking urgent measures to provide food and life support for migrant workers, said: “People are dying… 24 crore people have been pushed below the poverty line. The situation is worse than last year… Government has said they have not been able to even put up a portal for the registration of workers”.
Cash transfers
•Many of these destitute workers required immediate cash transfers to purchase essentials.
•Justice Bhushan said, “A uniform national data grid of migrant workers, in which both the Centre and States provide inputs should be there. This would ensure that benefits meant for migrant workers reach them and no other.”
•The court asked the government to clarify what steps it had taken under the Code of Social Security of 2020.
•During the hearing, Justice Shah pointed out that many of the workers would be illiterate and unable to register online. It was a welfare government’s obligation to reach out to the workers, their employers and contractors.
•The Labour Ministry, Mr. Mehta said, had started work on the database. He assured the court that he would talk to the Labour Secretary and get the necessary information on its status.
•Mr. Bhushan interjected to say that the immediate handing out of dry rations and cooked food, however, during the second wave should not depend on the completion of this database.
