Public Policy and Expenditure Mailing List Archive

["Ruchi Tripathi" <<address removed>>]

Right to food - holding government to account

ActionAid International India has tried to directly intervene in the lives of 
people in extreme distress, and secure the responsibility and accountability of 
the government. AAI-India is a part of a civil society alliance that has 
approached the Supreme Court of India to secure food security of poor people in 
drought areas.  Public Interest Litigation filed with the Supreme Court 
demanded the right to food and Right to work for drought affected people.  
There were several reported cases of hunger deaths during this period in 
Rajastan and Orissa on one hand with the perversity of government stores being 
full of buffer stocks on the other.   

The Courts have ordered the Government of India to set up a monitoring 
mechanism to ensure that this is being carried out.  Supreme Court has also 
created a number of new legal entitlements to food, for example a cooked midday 
meal for school-going children, immediate implementation of Public Distribution 
System (PDS) and others.  This has assured nutrition to nearly 30 million 
children from poor families.  Right to Food action - has bearing on nearly 50 
million destitute people through Antodaya; midday meal; PDS; Food 4 work; 
Famine codes, etc.

The right to food campaign and AAI have again moved the courts to ensure that 
while the able bodied persons, are able to get food the non able bodied (the 
disabled, aged etc) have a right to food which is covered under the social 
security scheme. According to Sandeep Chachra, ActionAid International India's 
Policy Director, "The right to food campaign is now moving towards 
operationalising the right to work."



ActionAid's vision is a world without poverty in which every person can 
exercise their right to a life of dignity. Registered Charity No. 274467
www.actionaid.org 

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