Food Security and Food Safety Nets in India: An Inter-temporal Analysis

Public Food Delivery Systems are of crucial importance in developing countries of the world which are characterized by widespread problems of food and nutritional insecurity. As a country India has failed to provide food and nutritional security to a vast majority of the population and it remains one of the most food insecure nations of the world (UNICEF, 2007). Despite India’s impressive growth performance chronic hunger and mass deprivation is a major problem, which may lead to dire consequences for the future. The situation is particularly alarming with respect to women and children. More than half of the women in the country are underweight and about 47 percent of children are of LBW (Low Birth Weight). Six decades after independence India houses the largest number of malnourished persons in the world (ibid). India’s food policy has undergone a rapid change since the 1950s and 1960s, when food security was considered a problem of availability at the national level. This was followed by the entitlement approach to food security and in recent years access to food has become a human right. The Government of India has launched a number of initiatives to curb hunger and malnutrition, especially among vulnerable groups like women, young children and tribal. The main aim of the present study is to evaluate three of India’s most important food based social protection programs which comprise of the Mid day Meal Scheme (MDMS), the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) on the basis of secondary data sources comprising of NSSO Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2004-05 and 2009-10 as well as NFHS-3 data