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INDIA - Right To Food

Country:  INDIA

Project Title:  Right to Food

Project Designation:  1503

The Need:

Nearly 50% of the world’s hungry live in India, a low-income, food-deficit country. In spite of the significant progress India has made in food production over the last 60 years, most rural populations still have to deal with the uncertainty of food security on a daily basis year after year. According to the U.N.’s FAO Year Book 2005-06 the under-nourished population in India is 20% of the total population. Indian poverty is predominantly rural, where landless labourers and casual workers are the worst-off economic group. Scheduled castes and tribes, women, old people and female children face more deprivation than others. Nutritional and health indicators are extremely low in these target areas.

In the 2 districts of Bastar located in the dry southern part of Chhattisgarh State, and East Champaran in Bihar State bordering Nepal there are large vulnerable populations of predominately tribal and other peoples at risk who earn much of their income from small plots of land, as agricultural labourers, selling forest products like firewood, hay and herbs, or handicrafts like bamboo baskets.

The staple food in the target area is rice, corn, sorghum and finger millet. The consumption of milk and other high protein foods is rare among them. The people here suffer from lack of purchasing power, limited and often poor un-irrigated land, degraded forests, social exclusion because the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes remain cut off from the mainline society and seldom have a chance to participate in the socio-economic and political domain.

To address the problems of lack of access to food due to poverty the government of India has come out with various welfare schemes promoting “Right to Food and Right to Work”, but they are not working well and seem to be beyond the reach of this largely illiterate disempowered population without some form of advocacy.

WRC’s Response:

EFICOR (WRC’s partner), in cooperation with a local nongovernment organization (NGO) partner, as well as the local communities of Bastar District, Chhattisgarh State, and East Champaran District of Bihar State will do advocacy and work for increased local involvement with various levels of government and their agencies so the vulnerable families (about 5,000) in 100 villages of the project area will have greater access to food at household level through greater effectiveness of government entitlements, welfare and employment programs within a period of 3 years.

1. At least 75% of “below-poverty-level (BPD) families (total of about 5,000) in 100 villages will have access to food grain entitled quota from retail shops at a subsidized rate.

2. At least 75% of the target villages will have mid day meals functioning in their primary school.

3. At least 75% of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS, for immunization, supplementary nutrition, etc.) centres in the targeted 100 villages will be functioning on all the working days.

4. At least 75% of households in each village will have received a government job card and a job will be allocated for 100 days.

5. At least 75% of targeted households will have an income equivalent to the minimum wage as per the state rule.

At last reporting - March 2009 (First 15 months)

1.  8,242 people (6,134 from Bastar Dist. & 2,108 from E. Champaran) or 57.6% of families got food from subsidized 'PDS' shops.

2.  6,017 school aged children (4,952 from Bastar Dist. & 1,065 from E. Champaran) are receiving mid-day meals.

3.  1,964 pre-school kids (1,223 from Bastar Dist. & 741 from E. Champaran) receiving lunch meals at nursery.

4.  3,850 people (2,915 from Bastar Dist. & 935 from E. Champaran) representing 27% of families got jobs, and several thousand more now have job cards.  No one received the target of 100 days work yet it is estimated that approximately $60,000 was earned collectively.

As this is an advocacy project working with 'powerless' and largely uneducated people it takes time to inform and mobilize them.  There have been educational plays, rallies at the district level, motivational action committees set up, and local community organizers hired and given specific areas to work in.  It is now noticeable that many of the PDS (food centres), ICDS health centres, school feeding programs, (and rural employment schemes to a lesser extent), are operating better.  Some 'peripheral benefits' to the project are seen now such as much higher school attendance.

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