Representative image of poverty.
Reuters Photo
It was expected that the free ration scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) would be extended further, but the way it was done was a surprise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement of extension of the scheme for five more years at an election rally in Chhattisgarh last week. The scheme involves free supply of 5 kg of food grains per month to over 810 million people who account for three-fourths of the country’s rural and half of the urban population. The scheme was initiated by the Manmohan Singh government in 2013 under the National Food Security Act to provide subsidised food grains to the poor. It has gone through changes since and the Modi government introduced the PMGKAY in 2020 as a free ration entitlement scheme. It was extended for one year in December 2020 as the country was recovering from the Covid pandemic and has been kept going with short extensions since.
The announcement of extension of the scheme – this time for five years -- at an election rally was inappropriate because it amounted to violation of the model code of conduct. It is pointed out that while parties make promises in their election manifestos, the Prime Minister has announced a decision of the government which can influence the voters. Opposition parties have brought it to the attention of the Election Commission. They have also objected to the Prime Minister presenting the scheme as a ‘gift’ from his government. The Food Security Act was originally legislated as a social security scheme. The BJP had opposed the legislation and the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that it had given “unworkable statutory responsibilities…to central and state governments.” Over the years, it became a political scheme with the Modi government accepting and expanding it and claiming credit for it. It is now being used as an election-time ‘gift’ to voters.
The extension of the scheme must be seen as tacit admission by the Prime Minister that poverty and destitution levels have not improved in the nine years of the Modi government and raises questions about the claimed economic growth of the country and its quality. When the food security scheme was launched, it was expected that the extent and scope of subsidy would be brought down over the years as income levels rose. But the income levels of the beneficiary population have not improved and the budgetary expenditure on the scheme has increased. The programme now involves an annual expenditure of Rs 2 lakh crore. At the same time, the government has been criticising the country’s slide on the global hunger index – it now ranks 111th among 125 countries -- as manipulated.