Introduction of Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) in December 2000, a scheme for the poorest of the poor gave a boost to India’s resolve to reduce the number of hungry people considerably by the year 2007. The World Food Summit in 1996 had set forth the goal of halving the number of hungry population by the year 2015. This was stated by Shri Subhash Maharia, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution while delivering the keynote address in the Indo-Brazilian Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Development: Perspective and Possibilities, which was inaugurated at New Delhi this morning. AAY now covers 1.5 crore households and highly subsidised foodgrains at the rate of 35 kg per family per month is made available to the poorest of the poor all over the country. Of this, the 50 lakh BPL (Below Poverty Line) families which were additionally identified included priority groups such as permitive tribal households, families headed by widows, disabled and terminally ill persons and people with no support or assured means of subsistence.
Shri Maharia pointed out that the Government has taken a number of measures in last two years to utilise the huge stock of foodgrains for the welfare of the people like the mid-day meal scheme, wheat based nutrition programme, the annpurna scheme, the SC/ST/OBC Hostel Scheme, nutrition programme for adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers etc. A substantial portion of the food stock has been used to generate employment in times of natural calamities in the form of food for work programme and Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), a special component of which has been launched to provide foodgrains to state governments to organise employment generation programmes in the areas affected by natural calamities. During last year Government of India met the challenge of severe drought in the country by the allocation of a record 8.5 million tonnes of foodgrains to the affected states on a free of cost basis.
This, apart from providing foodgrains to vulnerable households in the affected areas also contributed in maintaining stability in foodgrains prices; the Minister pointed out.
The policy of the Government to make available remunerative minimum support price to farmers has given encouragement to higher production and the Public Distribution System run by the Government has made foodgrains available at specially subsidised and affordable prices to poor and vulnerable section of society. Poverty Alleviation Programmes, employment generation schemes and better wages are components of the basic policies to improve access to food to the people. The consumer, food industry, government and non-governmental agencies have a vital inter-related role to play in ensuring food security, Shri Maharia added.
The objective of Indo-Brazilian Meet is to stimulate the first interaction between government officials, the private sector and NGOs of both the countries on sustainable development on its social and economic dimensions.
(Release ID :825)