The Covid-19 Crisis and People’s Right to Food

Right to food can be read as a fundamental right in India under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which upholds the right to life. The Integrated Child Development Services and the National Food Security Act, 2013 are parts of the country’s larger welfare system which aid in facilitating this right. They ensure the provisioning of midday meals, the functioning of the public distribution system and maternity entitlements. Despite these, undernutrition is still a pressing issue in India with about 36 per cent of children recorded underweight in 2015-16.

The nation-wide lockdown in 2020 caused large-scale job losses and substantially reduced household earnings, the review notes. This situation was exacerbated by disruption in the delivery of public services like mid-day meals or health services that did not address covid-19. These disruptions and economic crises continued even after the lockdown was lifted.

Foodgrain rations under the public distribution system almost doubled between April and November 2020, the review states. Likewise, the National Rural Employment Guarantee program expanded by 50 per cent and cash transfers were made for specific people such as women and old-age under welfare schemes. Additionally, state governments also undertook certain relief.  However, the review finds that these could not fully cover the losses caused by the lockdown.

A 2020 survey by the consulting group Dalberg showed that 80 per cent of households had reduced incomes in April and May 2020. Of these households, a quarter had recorded no earning at all during these months. Surveys also showed that urban households were more affected than rural households. A CSE-APU survey with income data found that 19 per cent of workers (15 per cent men and 22 per cent women) from the informal sector who had a job before lockdown were unemployed in September and November 2020.

The issues lasted well past the lockdown. As many as 77 per cent of households were eating less during the lockdown than what they used to before. This percentage of households remained at 60 per cent even in October-December 2020 when the lockdown had lifted. Data from Action Aid said that 35 per cent of around 10,000 informal workers ate less than two meals a day in May 2020. Right to Food Campaign’s ‘Hunger Watch’ which surveyed adults from the country’s poor households stated that two-thirds of the respondents reported consuming less nutritious food in September-October 2020 compared to pre-lockdown.

Public infrastructure’s role in supporting the poor during and after the lockdown was extremely crucial, the review finds. Ration cardholders who received foodgrains made up more than 80 per cent of the respondents in most surveys reviewed. At the same time, this does not indicate the extent to which the households received their full due.

There were similar issues of reach with the Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY) cash transfers under the central government relief package. As cash transfers of Rs. 500 were supposed to be made to women with the JDY accounts, as many as 40 per cent of poor households which did not have an adult woman with an account were left out. Other beneficiaries also missed out on the payments due to problems of lack of clarity, transaction failures and fraud.  According to  CMIE data, cash transfers from both central and state governments did not make up even 10 per cent of the income loss suffered by people in April-May 2020.

Focus and Factoids by Arundhati Erath.

PARI Library’s health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.