India's grain warehouses are bursting at the seams and sacks of rice and wheat lie rotting in the open for lack of storage space. These government-managed stocks are for offsetting a fall in agricultural production in the event of drought or floods, but are also meant for sale to the poorest segment of the population at subsidised prices.
But because the public distribution system (PDS) is undermined by bureaucracy and corruption, 60m tonnes of grain is lying in warehouses or under plastic sheeting, and, according to the Hindustan Times, 11m tonnes of it has been destroyed by the monsoons.
A committee of experts appointed by the supreme court has claimed that this is nothing short of "genocide", and last month the court ordered the free distribution of the grain to the poor rather than have it eaten by rats.
Since the 1970s green revolution, agricultural production has continued to rise, but not to benefit the hungry. Half of India's children aged under five suffer from malnutrition, and the rate remained stable between 1999 and 2006 despite the economic growth in those years. India is the world's 11th largest economic power but still has more people in poverty than sub-Saharan Africa, even though it has not suffered from civil wars and political crises. TV images of a nation of empty stomachs and overflowing granaries have generated considerable anger.
In his column in the Mint, the economist Himanshu asked: "Why did the government not offload the stocks last year when most of the country was suffering from drought, and the food price inflation was close to 20%? And what was the need to procure more grain when stocks were rotting in its godowns?"
The problems of stock management and warehousing are exacerbated by the inefficiency and corruption of the PDS . According to a 2008 report by the National Advisory Council, some government "fair price" shops only open two or three days a month, and very few Indians can afford to buy their entire 25-30 kg monthly ration in one go, on wages that barely allow them to survive from day-to-day.
The report stated that many of the most vulnerable people were not benefiting from the government food programme or were not getting enough out of it. Indeed, the rich benefit more from it than the poor. Forged ration cards can be bought from corrupt officials. A 2005 audit by the National Advisory Council found that only 42% of the subsidised grain was reaching those who were suffering from malnutrition. Families living below the poverty line often hand over their ration cards to moneylenders as collateral for loans when they have to pay for a child's wedding – or to pay back other debts.
The yellow "BPL" ration cards distributed to families below the poverty line are the most sought after, since they allow holders to re-sell the rice they obtain at the subsidised price of just 5-6 cents a kilo.
With corruption and management costs taking up between 40% and 70% of the PDS's annual budget, how can the system be changed? After introducing the right to information, and the right to education, the Indian government is preparing a new law that will guarantee every citizen the right to food.
In 1971 Indira Gandhi was elected on her slogan "eradicate poverty". Now 38 years later, her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, won the election to head the Congress party on a similar promise, that of "shared growth". For in the intervening years India has grown richer but still has 651 million poor people, according to the Asian Development Bank.
The Right to Food movement is currently campaigning for a universal distribution system, rather than a targeted one, because the "poverty accounting" criteria in India are very controversial and the lists are frequently manipulated – and therefore unreliable.
According to a poll carried out in 2005 and 2006, only 56% of BPL households were actually registered as such by the government. And any household can be thrown into poverty from one day to the next by natural disaster, or the death or illness of a family member.
"A universal public distribution system would be a life-saver for the hungry, while for the others it would be a form of financial support and social security," explained Jean Drèze, an economist and member of the Right to Food movement. But he estimates the cost of the reform to be more than $21.8 billion. Is the country prepared to devote 1.5% of its GDP for the fight against hunger? The answer will lie in the government's Right to Food Act, which should be revealed before the end of the year.
