can play a key role in developing their food security plan or
incorporating aspects of food security in their planning process and
building synergy among different service delivery actors. The following
are some of the ongoing food security initiatives in India in which
Panchayats have been playing an important role:
Public Distribution System (PDS) is one of the
most important programmes to subsidise foodgrains for the poor,
guaranteeing remunerative prices to the farmers and helping cope with
difficult situations such as floods, drought etc. One of the most
important innovations in recent times has been in Chhattisgarh which has
managed to convert PDS into a model-scheme in the state. In 2004, the
newly elected Chhattisgarh government introduced a number of reforms in
the PDS delivery and procurement system such as computerisation of Fair
Prices Shops (FPS) and data related with stocks and sales to enable
allocation of grains, offering of mobile based applications including
SMS alerts for interested beneficiaries which has improved the access to
information about food grains lifted from godowns and their delivery at
ration shops. For ensuring that food grains are delivered to ration
shops in a timely manner, ‘doorstep delivery’ was started wherein
GPS-enabled transport vehicles helped streamline the system through
constant tracking. All these innovations have been supported by
centralised monitoring and grievance redressal mechanism in the form of
a functioning helpline and access to information regarding PDS. At the
village level, after food grains reach the ration shops, the reformed
system ensures that all information pertaining to beneficiaries is made
public. One of the most important changes has been reflected in the form
of ‘Increasing Ownership’. Transfer of all Fair Price Shops (FPS) to the
Gram Panchayats, cooperative societies, self-help groups and
forest protection committees has led to an increase in transparency and
accountability as the FPS are now being run by the people from the
villages themselves. The Panchayats are playing a very crucial
role in identification of beneficiaries, regular and quality
distribution of food grains and in the regular monitoring of PDS shops.
These issues are addressed during the local planning process in a very
transparent manner. During the planning process, a local vigilance
committee is formed for regular monitoring of the PDS shop and to check
on the quality of food grains. The Panchayat also ensures that
all documents are made available to the public for auditing.
Aanganwadi Centres: Anganwadi means
‘courtyard shelter’. This is a government sponsored child-care and
mother-care centre in India catering to children in the 0-6 age group.
It was started by the government of India in 1975 to combat child hunger
and malnutrition and to provide supplementary food to pregnant/lactating
mothers and children. In June 2015, the Government of India has taken a
revolutionary step to modernise Anganwadis by launching the
country’s first modernised Anganwadi centre (AWC) at Hasanpur
village in Haryana, which will be replicated at 4,000 other places and
is likely to change the face of the government’s 40-year-old children
and women-oriented scheme by making them equipped with latest facilities
like solar-powered systems and televisions for teaching purpose. The
main objective behind this scheme is to transform Anganwadis into
community centres for children and mothers. Here, Panchayats can
play a crucial role in modernising such institutions.
Mid-day Meal (MDM) Scheme is the popular name for
the free school meal programme in government schools in India. It
involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all
working days. The key objectives of the programme are protecting
children from classroom hunger and malnutrition and increasing school
enrolment and attendance. Over the years, the state of Karnataka has
emerged as the best implementing state of MDM. The pioneering move by
the state government to make NGOs the implementing arm of the government
has been one of the major reasons in attaining the goals of the
programme in Karnataka.
The above initiatives illustrate the importance of
shifting to ‘Community Led Innovative’ approaches and the strong need of
strategic planning at the local level to fulfill the present food
security demand in India. Through such planning, Panchayats can
address the problems of the most vulnerable sections of the society who
are directly or indirectly facing the challenge of food security.
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