India plans to subsidise wheat, rice and cereals for some 800 million people under a $20bn scheme to cut malnutrition and ease poverty, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
The Food Security Bill, sent this week by India’s parliament to the president for approval, guarantees citizens a legal right to food.
India has some of the world’s worst poverty and malnutrition with two-thirds of its 1.2 billion people poor and half of the country’s children malnourished.
Food Minister K.V. Thomas called the bill a first step toward improving food distribution in a country where poor transportation and lack of refrigeration mean up to 40 per cent of all grains and produce rot before they reach the market.
The new scheme allows those who qualify to buy five kilograms of rice a month for 3 rupees (4.5 cents) a kilogram. Wheat will cost 2 rupees a kilogram, and for cereals the cost is 1 rupee.
Pregnant women and new mothers will also receive at least 6,000 rupees ($90) in aid. In a deviation from India’s patriarchal traditions, the scheme designates the eldest woman in each home as the head of the household, hoping to prevent rations from ending up on the black market.
The poorest families among the poor, already receiving subsidized rates for up to 35 kilograms of grains a month, will continue to receive those benefits.