🔆The Problem with the Right to Free Food

✅World Food Day is observed annually on October 16 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and this day serves as a reminder of the global commitment to achieving food and nutritional security.
✅Despite significant strides in agriculture over the years, such as increased food production through advanced farming methods and improved incentives for farmers, achieving true food security remains a global challenge.
✅The theme for this year’s World Food Day, Right to Foods for a Better Life and a Better Future, underscores the ongoing need for a balanced approach to ensuring access to food, especially in the context of evolving socio-economic dynamics.

📍Current State of Global Food Security
✅The global food security scenario, according to the FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, is concerning.
✅Approximately 2.33 billion people continue to experience moderate to severe food insecurity.
✅This represents a serious challenge for those committed to providing food and nutritional security.
✅Efforts to address this issue often involve a combination of policy initiatives, innovations in agriculture, and targeted interventions.
✅However, the complex interplay between economic policies, subsidies, and accessibility to food creates a challenging landscape for achieving the desired outcomes.

📍The Policy Perspective of India’s National Food Security Act (NFSA)

✅A Transformative Step to Ensure Food Security
Enacted in 2013, NFSA aimed to provide subsidised food grains to approximately two-thirds of the Indian population, making it one of the most ambitious social welfare programs.
✅The primary focus was to ensure that the most vulnerable sections of society had access to basic food staples such as rice, wheat, and coarse grains, which would be made available at highly subsidised rates of Rs 3/kg, Rs 2/kg, and Rs 1/kg respectively.
✅The NFSA sought to legally guarantee food security, moving from a welfare-based approach to a rights-based approach, ensuring that access to food became a legal right for eligible citizens.

📍Tied to Global Right to Food Movement
✅The Right to Food approach aimed to address hunger and malnutrition, especially among marginalised communities, by ensuring a steady supply of essential food grains through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
✅The PDS, which had been functioning since the 1960s, received a substantial boost under the NFSA as it became the primary mechanism for the distribution of subsidised grains to eligible households.

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🔆Anna DARPAN Project

✅Recently, the Food Corporation of India has selected Coforge Limited as the System Integrator for its digital transformation project, Anna DARPAN.

📍Anna DARPAN Project:

✅The project aims to streamline and enhance the supply chain management system at various levels.
✅This system will be designed to improve efficiency and productivity by creating an interactive and user-friendly UI design.
✅It will also enable data-driven decision-making by leveraging data analytics to support strategic and operational decisions. The system will be integrated with internal and external systems, and a mobile-first approach will be prioritized to ensure that it is accessible anytime, anywhere.
✅As part of the project, Coforge will be responsible for the end-to-end design, development, implementation, and maintenance of the Anna DARPAN system.
✅The development team will leverage the latest technology and a state-of-the-art IT environment to build a cloud-based platform for hosting the system.

🔆National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

Why in News?

✅The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has raised serious concerns about the state of functioning in madrassas and called for stopping state funding to them unless they comply with the Right to Education Act.

📍NCPCR

✅The NCPCR is an Indian statutory body established in 2007 under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005. It works under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD).
✅Its mandate is to ensure that all laws, policies, programs and administrative systems conform to the vision of the rights of the child (age 0 - 18 years) as enunciated in the Indian Constitution as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
✅India has acceded to the CRC in 1992 which is an international treaty that makes it incumbent upon the signatory States to take all necessary steps to protect children's rights enumerated in the Convention.
✅The Commission envisages a rights-based perspective, which flows into national-state-local policies and programmes, ensuring -
🔰Well-being of children,
🔰Strong institution-building processes,
🔰Respect for local bodies and decentralisation at the community level and greater social concern in this direction.

📍Functions and Responsibilities of NCPCR:

✅Examine and review existing safeguards for the protection of child rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation.
✅Report annually and at other intervals to the central government on the effectiveness of these safeguards.
✅Investigate violations of child rights and recommend legal proceedings in appropriate cases.
✅Promote research in the field of child rights.
✅Raise awareness of child rights and available safeguards through various means, such as publications, media, and seminars.
✅Inspect institutions where children are detained or reside, including juvenile homes, and recommend remedial action if necessary.
✅Investigate complaints and take suo motu notice of issues related to the deprivation and violation of child rights and the non-implementation of laws protecting and developing children.

📍Responsibilities:
✅It has been mandated under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 -
✅To examine and review the safeguards of the rights provided under the Act and
To recommend measures for its effective implementation.
✅It has been mandated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012 -
🔰To monitor the designation of Special Courts by State Governments, and
🔰To monitor the formulation of the guidelines described in the Act.
✅It has been charged with the monitoring of Child Care Institutions (CCIs) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015.
✅It was instructed to carry out a social audit of the same by the Supreme Court.

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World Food Day 2024

UPPSC