An Economist in the Real World: The art of policymaking in India by Kaushik Basu

Author:Kaushik Basu [Basu, Kaushik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789385890666
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-02-10T23:00:00+00:00

Food Security for the Vulnerable

I have not yet addressed the subject of the government’s special responsibility to the poor and vulnerable households, that is, objective (2), mentioned earlier in the chapter. The importance of this objective cannot be overstated. If we do not provide special support to the poor, small relative price changes or exchange entitlement shifts can lead to widespread suffering and even famines (Sen 1981; Basu 2009).15

The Indian government tries to meet a large part of objective (2) by releasing to BPL households a part of its acquired grain at a lower-than market price, through the approximately 500,000 fair-price shops or ration shops scattered across the nation. The National Food Security Bill, which was debated during my tenure in government and was later enshrined as law, was motivated by this objective.

The right to a certain minimal amount of basic food is an achievable right, as long as some qualifications are carefully spelled out, and so, to that extent, is a move in the right direction for India.16 The important qualification is that in the future there may be times when there simply is not enough food for everybody to achieve that minimal target—for instance, following a nuclear war or an environmental calamity. What would it mean, in such a situation, for the government to guarantee food security to all? This compels us to confront a common dictum of ethics, namely, that ought implies can.

One way to commit to food security while allowing for the possibility of the above kind of contingency is to assert that the government will ensure that as long as some people are able to get the basic minimal amount of food everybody should have the right to a certain basic amount of food. Stated in this manner, food security for all does not entail the false promise that there will be food for all at all times, but simply that government will ensure that everybody has access to a certain minimal amount of food and, in case there is an overall shortage of food in the nation (which cannot be corrected through imports), that everybody will share in the shortage.

With this clarification, let me turn to some practical policy matters. Basically a food security law should take the form of ensuring that the poorest and the most vulnerable people are given access to a certain minimal quantity of food. The better-off people, it will be assumed, have the ability to fend for themselves.

The important lesson to keep in mind is that to achieve this objective it is not enough to have the right intentions. One has to design a delivery mechanism which can work in the kind of world that we have. India’s rationing system has not worked well enough not for lack of good intention but because of insufficient attention to the details of the delivery mechanism. The problem arises from the fact that in India the food subsidy is handed to poor households via the ration shops. The government delivers subsidized grain

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