SC’s Recent Question on Food Security

Why is in News?

The Supreme Court recently said states showed a high per capita growth when asked to highlight the development index but claimed 75% of their population was below poverty line when it came to subsidies.

The Indian government uses Below Poverty Line (BPL) to identify and target assistance to those with incomes below a specific threshold, considered to be living in poverty.

• Questions of Supreme Court - The SC asked about the contradicting behavior of states claiming high per capita income while having a significant population below the poverty line.
• The apex court asked whether the subsidized ration system, meant to provide food security to the deserving poor, was merely a ploy by governments to garner popularity.
• The court said corruption and mismanagement of the Public Distribution System must not be a ground to discourage its implementation.
• The court was hearing petitions seeking ration cards for migrant workers to ensure food security.
• Legal provisions - The court said the poor have a right to access at least 2 square meals a day in terms of their fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• Central government’s clarification - Union government was duty-bound under the National Food Security Act to provide food grains.
• She said the coverage under the Act was 81.35%. There was additional coverage for 11 crore people under the Anganwadi scheme, and further coverage for another 22-crore people.
• Challenges - The Supreme Court, in an earlier hearing, had taken strong exception to the delays in the implementation of its April 2023 order to provide ration cards to about 8 crore migrant workers registered on the e-Shram portal but not covered under the National Food Security Act.
• The court was then informed that the portal had 28.6 crore registrants. Of this, 20.63 crore were registered on ration card data.
• SC had argued that there could be more than 10 crore workers left outside the protective umbrella of the Food Safety Act as the statistics were based on the 2011 census.
• The population would have increased since then. The court had underscored the duty of a welfare state to include each and every migrant worker on the ration card roll expeditiously.

Reference

The Hindu - Supreme Court Question on High Per capita income