Standing on the Threshold: Food Justice in India

Oxfam India and Institute of Development Studies, UK

Lawrence Haddad

15 papers, 20 authors, (18 from India)

Biraj Swain C.P. Chandrasekar Olivier de Shutter N.C. Saxena Harsh Mander Rajendra P. Mamgain G. Dilip Diwakar M. Kumaran Amita Shah Felix Padel Paranjoy G.Thakurta Subi Chaturvedi Dolf te Lintelo M. S. Swaminathan Swarna Vepa R. Ramakumar Nilachala Acharya Subrat Das G.V. Ramanjaneyulu D. Raghunandan Lawrence Haddad

India stands on the threshold of potentially the largest step towards food justice the world has ever seen

Threshold Largest Justice

National Food Security Bill currently working its way through parliament Bill will cover 70% of all Indian households Access to food catalysed, ordered and monitored by the courts

India stands on the threshold of potentially the largest step towards food justice the world has ever seen 2

Potential

Rights need to be realised Rights only as strong as the programmes that deliver them Many threats to food security that are beyond the Bills remit Indias food security and malnutrition rates are high and stubborn

Step towards

A story about rights

Rights gained Rights realised Rights implemented Rights maintained

Rights gained
Took over 50 years of civil and judicial activism to make Articles 21 and 47 of the Constitution judiciable-- the last 10 years particularly active Establishing obligation of the state to do something about food security if we believe in the lottery of hunger as well as the returns to hard work Unpacking the rights on the books for different groups (explicating)

Rights realised
Overcoming exclusion
Financial (e.g. coverage of PDS) Implementation (e.g. greater participation of marginalised groups) Policy (e.g. those just above the BPL)

Power within system or power to change system?

Rights takers or rights makers? (e.g. womens contributions valorised only in the market)

The litmus tests

do rights empower the poorest? e.g. Would a unique ID system empower bureaucrats or citizens? do rights reinforce discrimination or erode it?

Rights implemented
Rights may be necessary, but not sufficient
They have to work through existing programmes, at least in the short run

Quality of programmesthe right to what?

Leakage in TPDS ICDS too focused on 3-6 year olds

Rights maintained
New frontiers
e.g. food price speculation

New challenges
e.g. climate change and intergenerational justice

Make it too difficult for rights to be eroded

Measuring commitment to food and nutrition security Engaging the media in a meaningful and knowing way

Implications for the different food justice Bills?

4 landmark bills on the table
NFSB Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill Womens Land Entitlement Bill Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Bill

Bills cannot short circuit deep seated discrimination, but they should not reinforce them Use the rights lens of the Bills not only to expand access to existing programmes, but to make existing programmes work

Implications for the different food justice Bills? 2

Need to evaluate the Bills impacts on hunger and malnutrition in an open, inclusive but rigorous way
There are very few impact evaluations of the 22 government food programmes Ones that exist are contested

Need to strengthen scrutiny and recourse systems

real time monitoring, social audits, community scorecards, citizen juries

The State needs to be proactive in protecting, respecting, facilitating and fulfilling rightsnot fall into the trap of

Power to radicalise

India is a powerful example to the world..

Power to radically inspire

1970s and 1980s: food The Green Revolution grain stocks amid hunger Role of open society in 1990s and 2000s minimising the likelihood of famines increases in income, but decreases in Food from the courts calorie consumption? and the interactions between the 2000 and 2010s: government and civil economic powerhouse it has a responsibility to activism get it and judicial but nutritional right weakling

Thank you