ISSUES OF FOOD SECURITY IN INDIA: AVAILABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND AFFORDABILITY

Abstract

Food is considered as basic amenity essential for the sustenance, development and growth of an individual. In the recently released Global Hunger Index, 2018 India ranked 103rd out of 119 countries and this report is quite disturbing since India is one of the largest producers of food grains in the world. India is home of 25 per cent of hungry population. There are various challenges faced by India in attaining food security. Natural calamities like excessive rain fall, accessibility of water for irrigation purpose, drought, soil erosion, undulating topography and various soil types such as degraded soil, infertile soil, acidic & alkaline soil and further non-improvement in agriculture facilities, growth in population, lack of education and job opportunities have further added to the problems.

The concept of Food Security is multifaceted. Food security exists when each and every person at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their food preference for an active and healthy life. This paper examines performance, issues, challenges and policies in terms of availability, accessibility and affordability. Further, it suggests some ways to achieve food and nutritional security in India for overall growth of an individual and sound and sustainable development of Indian economy.

To solve this issue of food security the government has implemented various programs i.e. The National Food Security Act, 2013 which aims to provide coverage of up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population for receiving subsidized food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thus covering about two-thirds of the population. The Act also has a special focus on the nutritional support to women and children. Besides meal to pregnant women and lactating mothers during pregnancy and six months after the child birth. Children up to 14 years of age will be entitled to nutritious meals as per the prescribed nutritional standards. In nutshell, despite ensuring ample availability of food, existence of food insecurity at the micro-level in the country has remained a challenge for India.