Linking of Aadhaar to ration cards in Jharkhand is depriving people of the right to food
Amartya Sen in his seminal work Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation writes, "Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there not being enough food to eat. While the latter can be a cause of the former, it is but one of the many possible causes. Whether and how starvation relates to food supply is a matter for factual investigation."
In this essay, Sen argues that starvation deaths and absolute food scarcity - that is insufficient food to feed everyone - is very rare. In fact what happens is entitlement failure, which he defines as inability of people to access the food or the inability of food to reach people. This may be due to a variety of factors ranging from failure of distribution systems, market failures, and failure of the systems and policies. Most importantly the entitlement approach focuses on patterns of ownership and exchange entitlement mappings - how people are able to exchange their wages/labour power/social security benefits that they are entitled to etc for food. These mappings are under a legal framework and recognised by the state.
Indians have this right legally recognised under the National Food Security Act, 2013 that aims to provide subsidised food grains to approximately two-thirds of India's 1.34 billion population. Amartya Sen in his essay also recognises the right to food, "Ownership of food is one of the most primitive property rights, and in each society there are rules governing this right." Sen's entitlement approach "concentrates on those means of commanding food that are legitimised by the legal system in operation in that society." Thus denial of food is the result of the failure of this legal entitlement.
Incidentally, this is exactly what is happening in Jharkhand as the world's largest biometric system deprives people of the right to food. Eleven-year-old Santoshi Kumari died of starvation, asking for rice in her final words. Her family had not received food rations from the government, as their ration card was not linked to Aadhaar. This is a two-step procedure. In addition to ration cards being linked to Aadhaar, the beneficiaries have to authenticate their biometrics at PDS shops to avail the food. This process is easier said than done.
Jharkhand's food and civil supplies minister Saryu Rai has stated that her death had nothing to do with this. Even though his government had passed an order that led to 11 lakh ration cards being cancelled because the cardholders had not furnished their Aadhaar numbers. The order has since been cancelled. Santoshi's death is unfortunately not the only one.
Another resident of the state, an elderly rickshaw-puller, Baijnath Ravidas died of long-term hunger and starvation. The family did not have either a ration or BPL card. They had applied several times but were unable to obtain one. In this case, the family alleges that despite writing applications to the additional district magistrate and the minister they could not get a card as middlemen were active in the region and the applications went unaddressed.
These systemic failures have prevented people from accessing food that is their right. Across states they are fraught with officialdom and authentication as they struggle to scan their fingerprints in the ration shops of the public distribution system (PDS). Often the computers are not working or the Internet connection fails.
Jean Drèze points out that due to these biometric failures and glitches many people are unable to get their due, which is then appropriated by the dealers. Aadhaar-linked welfare schemes are excluding the most needy, and PDS is worst impacted. This is especially true for remote areas and the vulnerable people like the very poor or the elderly. Drèze notes that the number of those affected may be as high as 10 per cent of the population or 2.5 million people in Jharkhand alone.
Debates over linking Aadhaar to welfare schemes have been going on for some time now. Following a series of government circulars making Aadhaar obligatory to access some welfare schemes such as MNREGA and Employees Pension, the Supreme Court had clarified earlier this year that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory. Later, it permitted voluntary use of Aadhaar for most such schemes, including the PDS.
Ironically, this is happening in a nation that remains a net exporter of grains. India is one of the leading exporters of cereals and the second-largest producer of rice. The government is currently deliberating over lifting a ban on export of pulses. According to Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), India's fruit exports have risen 40 per cent.
India thus exports food and faces starvation deaths at the same time. Sen explains that this is not unexpected and often food is exported to those whose entitlements might be stronger even though the need is lower and away from those whose entitlements are weak even if their need is more acute. In the present scenario, the failure of entitlement of starving people is not just due to their poverty (lack of wages or employment that may grant them power of exchange) but also importantly due to failure of social security provisions that have been especially constituted to address this acute poverty.
Sen ends the essay stating, "The law stands between food availability and food entitlement. Starvation deaths can reflect legality with a vengeance." Aadhaar cannot become a legal instrument to prevent people from accessing food. Right to food is not just an exercise of legality but also of ethics. A country that ranks shamefully low on Global Hunger Index cannot also let its citizens starve to death.