National Food Security Act, 2013

The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) provides for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices for people to live a life with dignity and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The Act is in line with Goal Two of the Sustainable Development Goals (which seeks sustainable solutions to end hunger in all its forms by 2030 and to achieve food security) set by the United Nations General Assembly.
Schemes such as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM), the Public Distribution System (PDS), and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) are included under the Act.

The Act legally entitled up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
The eligible persons will be entitled to receive 5 Kgs of foodgrains per person per month at subsidised prices of Rs. 3/2/1 per Kg for rice/wheat/coarse grains. The existing Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, which constitute the poorest of the poor, will continue to receive 35 Kgs of foodgrains per household per month.
About two-thirds of the population, therefore, is covered under the Act to receive highly subsidized foodgrains.
The Act also has a special focus on the nutritional support to women and children. Pregnant women and lactating mothers will be entitled to meals and maternity benefits of not less than Rs 6000. It is however restricted to two children only.
Children upto 14 years of age will be entitled to nutritious meals as per the prescribed nutritional standards. In case of non-supply of entitled foodgrains or meals, the beneficiaries will receive food security allowance.
The Act also contains provisions for setting up of grievance redressal mechanism at the District and State levels
The eldest women of the household of age 18 years or above will be the head of the household for the purpose of issuing ration cards.
The implementation of the scheme comes under the ambit of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

It is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and the State/Union Territory (UT) Governments.
The Central Government is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation of food grains up to the designated depots of the Food Corporation of India.
States/UTs hold the operational responsibilities for allocation and distribution of food grains.
The NFSA currently covers 81 crore people which was determined on the basis of the 2011 census, and has not been revised since the law was passed in 2013.

The Government has announced that once the new census data is available, the Centre may consider revising the number of people who get subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act.
The government has also launched the ‘Mera Ration’ mobile app to help ration card holders identify their nearest ration shop, check details of their own entitlements, and track their recent transactions.

Government think tank NITI Aayog has recently circulated a discussion paper proposing a reduction in the NFSA coverage, to 60% of the rural population and 40% of the urban population, in a bid to curb the food subsidy budget.
Right to Food activists and economists such as Jean Dreze, who was instrumental in formulating the NFSA, have argued that with an increased population, the NFSA’s coverage should be expanded, not pruned.

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