Amid indications that the COVID-19 lockdown will be extended by two weeks, the Right to Food Campaign (RFC) on Monday urged the government to provide ration to all people irrespective of whether they have a ration card or not for next six months, saying there are reports of widespread hunger from urban and rural areas.
In a letter to Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan, the RFC also demanded the government to ensure cooked food and running of community kitchens/feeding centres in urban areas to address the needs of migrant, unorganised sector workers, and the homeless and destitute populations besides providing dry rations to all intra-state and inter-state migrant workers who are struggling to get proper food ration kits.
Emphasising that the lockdown has resulted in the loss of livelihoods to millions of poor and working people across the country, the letter said there were reports of widespread hunger from urban and rural areas and starvation deaths in Bihar, Hyderabad, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh.
Warning that food inflation and spiralling prices of even essential items are with us to stay despite administrative measures, it said supply chains were broken and access to markets has become more difficult.
The letter highlighted that a very large section of those who do not have ration cards include the most vulnerable sections of society, such as migrants, homeless people, old persons and denotified tribes among others. It also claimed thousands of people who have been trying to get a ration card have been told that the "quotas" for the states have been are exhausted," it added.
"We urge you to make the PDS entitlements for six months at least universal in coverage in the sense that no person who approaches a ration shop for free grains should be denied the same for lack of ration cards. Universal schemes tend to have lower leakages and minimal exclusions," the letter, endorsed by 454 organisations and individuals, said.
Claiming that the relief measures announced by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) are "hugely inadequate", the letter said the National Food Security Act (NFSA) covers only 67% or 83 crore of the population as per 2011 Census, who has access to free access to ration cards. This number would have increased in the last nine years.
"It has to be further kept in mind that 81.7% of people in the country earn less than 18,000 per month (68% earn less than Rs. 12,000 per month), which is even less than the minimum wage recommended by 7th Pay Commission. In the current context of increased unemployment post the lockdown the situation would be worse," it said.