New Delhi:
The Planning commission is under pressure from the government and Sonia Gandhi to deliver the numbers for the Food Security Bill, but now pressure from the people it concerns the most the ones who are hoping that this bill will give them the food they so desperately need.
Angry protests outside the Planning Commission office demand that the ambit of the proposed food security law be expanded. Inside, the Commission members meet to discuss the target beneficiaries. They have to submit a report to the government next week.
Protestors say it is easy to sit inside and decide policy, but the ground reality is different.
Activists want food subsidy for everyone and say it will cost the government a little over 1 lakh crore.
It will go up by 6,000 crore more if the number of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families is revised from 6.5 to 9.5 crore.
Activists argue if the government can give heavy subsidy to industries why can't it give people the Right to Food?
Right to Food campaign activist, Kavita Shrivastava says, "Right now the total subsidy, education, food everything is less than 2% of our GDP and crores has been given as concession to industries."
Unless the food subsidy coverage increases many will continue to sleep hungry.
Sugandhi Devi is one among them. She lives in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh and her husband earns 2 kilos of rice after a day's labour.
Yet the family isn't counted under the BPL category.
Protestors have come from hunger ridden areas from across the country to assert their right to food. Their question to the government they elected to power - if the government can waive thousands of crores of taxes for one section of the country, why is it giving the excuse of lack of money to provide these people with their basic right to food.