Nutrition security needs more than slogans

India ranks 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index. It was imperative that the Union Budget 2023–24 realistically allocate amounts to focus on the structural and institutional measures needed to overcome hunger and malnourishment in the country.

The National Nutrition Policy (NNP), framed in 1993, laid out a road map from “farm to fork”—convergent action by various departments—for ensuring the “nutrition security” of the nation. The budget has deviated from this road, it seems, and lost its way.

On the agricultural front, too, vital interventions are needed. After the year-long agitation by farmers demanding legally-guaranteed Minimum Support Prices (MSPs), it was necessary, as implicit in the NNP, to announce adequate and statutory MSPs in the budget for procuring the more nutritionally rich millets, pulses, fruits, and vegetables, as otherwise, there would be no incentive for farmers to produce more of these and make them available in plenty to the populace.

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But the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which spearheaded the farmers’ protest, has reportedly expressed “shock and bewilderment” at the 5 per cent reduced allocation in the Union Budget for the agriculture sector, from Rs 1,51,521 crore in 2022–23 to Rs 1,44,214 crore in 2023–24. Further, out of the targeted increase in the income of farmers to Rs 13,000, only Rs 4,400 had been achieved. The budget allocation to PM Kisan Samman Nidhi for giving Rs 6,000 has also been reduced, in addition to the continuously declining number of beneficiaries, they have said. Unless farmers survive, how will they grow more food for the nation?

PDS interventions needed: Another key consideration under the NNP was to also supply the more nutritionally rich millets, pulses, and oils regularly through the PDS. However, activists with the Right to Food Campaign have noted that the budget has reduced food subsidy allocation by more than Rs 89,000 crore, and the Rs 1.97 lakh crore allocated will reduce the ration entitlement of 81 crore people by 50 per cent. It further points out that the Supreme Court, in the suo motu migrant workers’ case, directed that if the census is not underway, the government should use the official population projections and increase coverage under the PDS to the more than 10 crore people currently left out due to entitlements being fixed as per the 2011 census.

The SC also asked the government to verify how many of the 28.55 crore people registered on the e-shram portal have ration cards. But there is no provision for extending the PDS to include those without ration cards in the budget.

Minimum wage: The NNP required the provision of a minimum wage that would enable a worker’s family to eat a nutritionally adequate diet. The Food and Agricultural Organisation’s (FAO’s) 2022 report on food security and nutrition says that 70.5 per cent of Indians were unable to afford $2.97 (or Rs 240 per person per day) for a nutritionally adequate diet in 2020. But with the reduction in the budget for the NREGA to Rs 66,000 crore, there is little chance of raising the wage rates for the crores of workers under it, whose current wages per day are as low as Rs 198 in Chhattisgarh, which is insufficient to meet the nutritional needs of even a single person in the family, let alone meet the other needs of the family. So, the budget is in no way supporting the need to make “all policies consistent with national nutritional needs,” as per the NNP.

Universalisation of ICDS: As for the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) for curbing malnourishment, the SC in its landmark orders in the Right to Food case had directed that “ICDS should be universalized without delay.”

Thousands of AWCs and mini-AWCs still do not have running water or toilets. And only 7 per cent of beneficiaries are in urban areas, due to “an acute paucity of anganwadi centres (AWC) in urban areas,” as per a report in The Hindu.

Law Commission on day-care services: To address the bigger problem of anganwadis not functioning as full day-care centres, the Law Commission of India had suggested that “every child under six should have an unconditional right to crèche and day-care provided... by the State”.

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That an additional anganwadi worker is needed was recommended by the “Working Group on Children Under Six,” which prepared a paper titled “Strategies for Children Under Six” at the request of the Planning Commission for the 11th Plan in June 2007. But the budget has nothing for the above measures. In fact, the All-India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) has said in a press statement that the budget allocation for Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 scheme has been nominally increased by Rs 291 crore, from Rs 20,263.07 crore to Rs 20,554.31 crore. This will not be enough to even begin to implement the necessary changes.

AIFAWH points out further that the subsidy to the Food Corporation of India under the National Food Security Act has been cut down from Rs 2,14,696 crore (revised estimates for 2022-23) to Rs 1,37,207 crore, a deduction of Rs 77,489 crore or 36 per cent. The budget has cut Rs 40.15 crore from “Mission Shakti,” which includes the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, and the allocation for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (PM POSHAN) has been cut by Rs 1,200 crore.

In the previous budget, the finance minister had made an announcement about modernising 2 lakh anganwadis. Now the government says that it has approved the upgrade of only 35,758 AWCs. The government had also promised better working conditions for anganwadi workers and helpers in their election manifesto, but has neither increased their remuneration since 2018, in spite of inflation, nor provided them with gratuities as per SC orders.

The budget for the above measures needed to be calculated realistically and holistically and made the first charge on the state’s resources, as nothing can be more important to a government than fulfilling its citizens’ right to food, particularly children. However, the budget for this has been decreasing with this government even as sloganeering on “POSHAN Maah,” “Beti Bachao,” etc. fills the air.

(The writer is an executive trustee of CIVIC-Bangalore and an associate of the Right to Food Campaign.)