New Delhi: At a press conference in the Capital on Saturday, Nobel Laureate Amartaya Sen said a right to food law was imperative as the number of people in the country who were undernourished was horrendously large.
National Family Health Surveys surveys have shown that nearly 30 per cent children are born with low birth weight, every second child is malnourished.
Economist Jean Dreze said the right to food law could be an opportunity to expand and consolidate food entitlements for the people to include out of school children, migrant workers, the elderly and the disabled.
Jean Dreze, along with Harsh Mander, Biraj Patnaik and other Right to Food campaigners, is working on a freelance draft of the Right to Food Act, which will be presented to the Government. Their draft stresses on social assistance for the vulnerable and child nutrition programmes.