Nitin Sethi, TNN, Jul 16, 2010, 06.14am IST
On Wednesday, the National Advisory Council turned UPA's election promises into firm deliverables under the National Food Security Bill. That was a tough one to resolve itself. But it's a job half done as yet. The Sonia Gandhi-led NAC is now going to get into a much more difficult arena.
It has to figure out provisions for the act that hold administration and bureaucracy accountable for delivery and also ensure that the foodgrain in the government granary grows over the years to match the enhanced coverage it has got the government committed to.
The first of its tasks is a battle with bureaucracy that could be won with some effort but the latter – increasing production and government procurement to match the needs of increasing coverage of the act – is a long-drawn war.
The members of NAC who were inclined towards a more expansive and near-universal food distribution system have had to argue and bargain hard with the Planning Commission and the food ministry to get to where they have so far.
While the NAC backed down on the earlier demand of providing 35kg of grain at Rs 3 to almost 70% of the country's population, they have rather inconspicuously got away with a dramatic move. They have completely altered the way the poor are identified in the country. The government will now move away from the age-old technique of economic criteria-based assessment of households – do you own a lavatory, do you have a kutcha or pucca house etc – to a generic, umbrella approach.
Now if a household belongs to certain disadvantaged groups and communities — SCs/STs, homeless, destitute, single women households, HIV patients etc — it will automatically be included.
What it does with one stroke is take away the existing power of the Planning Commission to draw an artificial 'statistical' cut-off percentage of BPL for the food scheme. The NAC has decided to start a series of nutrition schemes for the most vulnerable groups and enhance the mid-day meal and Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS).
All rural and urban destitutes (including those living by alms), the aged, disabled and infirm adults, single women-headed households, the homeless, families of released bonded workers, all households which do not have any male able-bodied adult member, all rural SC ST households across the country will be universally covered by special nutrition support schemes – again a group target approach rather than an income level approach.
But this also means that the grain requirement and subsidy bill will increase substantially for the government. Especially, as the universal coverage of the bill gets expanded to more and more blocks – and that is bound to happen as much out of political demand (remember NREGA) as compulsions of the next general elections.
At present, the government supplies 27.4 million tonne of rice and wheat for PDS, which costs it Rs 56,000 crore (in 2010-11). It estimates to have 50 million tonne of grain in its godowns at the worst point of the year.
Back of the envelope calculations show the first year of NFSA, when one-fourth of the blocks or districts get almost universal coverage and special nutrition schemes are launched, would require around 50 million tonne of grain. The subsidy bill will go up by around Rs 20,000 crore.
But even so, the increase of fiscal subsidy might require only a political decision; supply of grain, on the other hand, is a governance issue that the NAC will have to fight and push hard.
The government has announced a 'second green revolution' through the non-irrigated lands but the agricultural ministry's past record does not inspire confidence. To assure itself that the NFSA does not come undone in future years, the NAC will need to set the course for this second 'revolution' and push the government to procure more. The latter is beset with macroeconomic concerns of how increased government purchase will hit prices and inflation.
Enhancing production alongside will become mandatory.
This would be the toughest bit to ensure because these issues will lie beyond the mandate of the NFSA. They would have to be embedded in an overall economic policy shift that will require increased budgetary allocations to agriculture, combined with the same intellectual vigour that India witnessed during the first green revolution.
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.
Aadhaar
The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018
When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi
“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi
“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.
Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.
Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha
“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh
But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP
“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.
August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"
“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden
In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.
Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.
Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.
UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy
1) Denial
2) Issue fiats and point finger
3) Shoot messenger
4) Bury head in sand.
God Save India
