Food Security Atlas Of RURAL MAHARASHTRA - WFP Remote ...

Box 7.7: Innovative Schemes for Ensuring Nutritional SecurityThe Department of Women and Child Development is the nodal agency for the formulation and execution of programmes directedtowards the holistic development of women and children. The department also aims at implementing different social welfareschemes meant for persons with disabilities, the old, infirm and indigent persons. Within the purview of the Department, a numberof innovative schemes are being executed under the larger aegis of the Integrated Child Development Services programme:1. Kishori Shakti Yojana: The scheme aims at improving the nutritional, health and development status of adolescent girls (11-18 years), promote awareness of health, hygiene, nutrition and family care, link them to opportunities for learning life skills,going back to school, help them gain a better understanding of their social environment and take initiatives to becomeproductive members of the society. The scheme is currently being executed in all the states of the country covering a totalof 6118 blocks.2. Swayamsiddha: This is an integrated project for the empowerment and development of women based on the formation ofwomen into Self Help Groups (SHGs) with emphasis on converging services, developing access to micro-credit and promotingmicro-enterprises.PDS grain to the Bangladesh market. Many newspaper reports point out that even in the midst ofstarvation, the Food Corporation of India's godowns remain full of grains. If there is insufficientpurchasing power with the poor in a district, even the supply of grain at subsidized prices is unlikelyto be accessed by the poor, and there will inevitably be a tendency for this grain to flow to markets,whether within the locality or outside, where prices are higher (Jos Mooij, 2001).The problem of diversion of foodgrains increases when there is a partial subsidy, such as with thePDS. Grain is supplied at a lower than market price, but the buyer has to have the money to buy thelower-priced grain. If the person just does not have the required money, or does not have it at thetime the grain is made available, the person cannot benefit from the subsidy.The above points to two critical points in the functioning of the PDS: First, the dual price system thatit brings about, encouraging diversion of foodgrain from the lower BPL price to the higher open marketprice. Second, the inability of many poor households to utilize their quotas because of inadequatepurchasing power.The abolition of dual pricing would reduce the usual diversion problems, but there would still be theproblem that now exists of the poor not being able to utilize the subsidy. A direct transfer would makesure that the person/household actually benefited, since it is not conditional on the beneficiary havingto provide some collateral amount.Another way of enabling the poor to acquire their public entitlement of grain would be to providework, such as through NREGS, which allows the poor to acquire the money needed for purchase offood. A combination of a coupon system with NREGS could improve the functioning of the PDS system.Such a system would have the added benefit of increasing the monetization of the rural economyand improving the functioning of the bank and/or post office systems.ADDRESSING FOOD INSECURITY IN MAHARASHTRA97