#15: Despite Having One of the World's Largest Food Security Nets, Why Are Indians Going Hungry?
Despite having one of the largest food security programmes in the world, why are Indians overwhelmingly going hungry? Last October, India slipped to the 94th position among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index, behind several neighbours including Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. We have a lot of ground to cover in this episode, and we’ll delve deeper into the public distribution system that seeks to cover 90 crore Indians.
Four economists will join us this week on Research Radio: Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera, Isabel Pimenta, and Prankur Gupta. Dr Khera is with the IIT Delhi, Dr Dreze is with Ranchi University. Isabel was formerly with the European Commission in the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development, Brussels. Prankur is a PhD scholar at The University of Texas at Austin. We will discuss their article titled "Casting the Net: India’s Public Distribution System after the Food Security Act." Also have a look at the article "Aadhaar and Food Security in Jharkhand: Pain without Gain?" and a related feature "The Aadhaar Game: Can You Survive This Maze To Reach Your Food Ration?"
Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].