Untitled - National Human Rights Commission
Untitled - National Human Rights Commission
Untitled - National Human Rights Commission
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underdeveloped arcas,often therearemorewomen cultivatorsthan<br />
male.Beside.sruralagriculruralantlnon-agriculturalIabourcrs , smal<br />
and m arginalfarmersalso faccfood insccurity . Notonly do thcy not<br />
getrem unerative pricesfortheirproduce,they arcalso afected by the<br />
risein retail/pD sfood-grain prices,being netbuyersofgrain , input<br />
costs are constanfly going up,whilc outputdocsnotshow<br />
com m ensuraterise.<br />
U rban Food Insecurity<br />
i) Itisoften prcsumed thatsinceurban areasarccovereclby PDS , food<br />
sccurity isno(amajorissueinurbanareas.Thisisnot(rue.During<br />
thel990s,thePDS hasbeen weakcncd , $0th by repeated increa-sesin<br />
thepriccsof feod-grainsand by che savitch to asystcm of targeted<br />
PDS,Studiesshow thatthe tlotom 10% ofthe urban population is<br />
notreally affected by thcprevalcntsystem ofPDS foracccssing foodgrains.In<br />
1999-00,averagecerealconsumption ofbortom 10% of<br />
urban population was9.55kg/month in urban India . O fthis,less<br />
than onekg/monthwasaccessedfrom PDS(FoodlmecurityAtlasof<br />
Urban.Jp7lb,M SSRFYWFP 2002).<br />
Thisbringsouttheneed to have a system of PDSthatisflexibleso as<br />
ro ensurelargercoveragc. Pcople sltould beableto accessgrains<br />
&om PDS wheneverthey want,whenevcr they wantand in any<br />
quantiey they want,subjectto afew ground rulesto prevent<br />
purchaseforhoarding and subsequentsale athigh prices . Thatis,<br />
flexibility with rcgard to time , place and quanrityofpurchascaeeds<br />
to be fitted in to thePD S . Acccssing sulsidizcd food-grainsis<br />
absolutely essentialnotonly forthcsettled urban poorbutalso for<br />
the mjgranfpopulation from vilagcs .<br />
i) Asforpurchasingpower,thequalityand quantum ofempioymentof<br />
thepopulation determ ine theirincom eearning ability and therefore<br />
theirabilitz ro purciaasefood-grainsin che m arkct ,Casualcmployment<br />
norm aly fetchesan income thatis1ow and irregular;regular<br />
em ploymenton adecentwageensurea relatively bettcraccessto food .<br />
in 1990-00,in urban India only 4 outofevely 10 workcrsbclonged<br />
to the regularwage catcgory;am ong :hebo tom 10% ofurban<br />
population)nearly4 outof 10 personsareca - suallabourers.Thenaturc
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