Question : Population Covered under NFSA

(a) whether there has been an increase in the population covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) over the last seven years;

(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;

(c) the number of new NFSA beneficiaries added per year since 2013, State-wise, along with their percentage proportion in the total population in respective years;

(d) whether the Government has found a statistical correlation between NFSA coverage and State Gross Domestic Product; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

A N S W E R
MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
(SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)
(a): No Sir. Coverage under the National Food Securiy Act, 2013 (NFSA) has not been revised since its implementation in July, 2013. The NFSA coveres about two-thirds of the total population which at Census 2011 comes to 81.35 crore. As per Section 9 of the Act the total number of persons to be covered in rural and urban areas of the State shall be calculated on the basis of the population estimates as per the Census of which the relevant figures have been published. Therefore, any change in State/UT-wise coverage of beneficiaries would be possible only after the data of next population Census is published.
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(b): Question does not arise as explained in part (a) above.

(c): The population coverage under the Act has not been changed since its inception in July 2013 as any revision can be envisaged only after the publication of the next Census as mandated under Section 9 of the NFSA.

(d): The State/UT-wise coverage under the National Food Security Act was undertaken by the erstwhile Planning Commission using the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2011-12 of the National Sample Survey Organization using Poverty estimates of 2011-12. The State wise coverage was devised in such a manner that States with higher incidence of poverty were given a higher coverage under NFSA.

(e): As explained in part (d) above.
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