The food security atlas on rural Bihar prepared by the Institute for Human Development in cooperation with the World Food Programme has identified 12 districts of north-eastern Bihar as the most vulnerable “hotspots” in food security requiring intervention.

The atlas is based on parameters like low yield of foodgrains, high child mortality, low female literacy and low access to primary health care. The atlas has grouped six districts as “severely insecure” and another two, Kishanganj and Jamui, Naxalite-dominated districts as “extremely insecure”.  It is a sad commentary the state agencies have failed in welfare and development for the poor people in these districts. While the successive governments in Bihar talked of providing food through several mechanisms including a strong public distribution system, they never really made any serious effort to re-energize the distribution system and ensure that it works effectively, particularly in the areas inhabited by poverty-stricken people. Corruption and malpractices in the public distribution system have become endemic. Unfortunately no effort was ever made to break the nexus. This looks ironical against the state’s spectacular 11.04 per cent growth.   While there is severe shortage of foodgrains, the situation is getting worse due to the lack of action by the state government. Why cannot the government revive the public distribution system in the rural areas where the poor need it most? The poor who do not have purchasing power cannot go to the open market. What is worse is that since the PDS is dysfunctional they do not receive foodgrains for months. As a result a large number of people are living in hunger. It cannot be denied that the kind of work that the state government ought to do is not taking place and there is no significant improvement in the living conditions of people. Notwithstanding the fact that the report aims at finding a way out to the present situation and also improve the access of food to the poor, an unseeming controversy has erupted whether the government should pay cash or distribute foodgrains to the poor. Nevertheless the government would have to take care of the needs of the 1.25 crore of the people living below the poverty line. The government is free to adopt any mechanism which suits it, but the main motto should be to enhance the food absorption index, i.e. increasing the nutrient intake of the body. The poor must get their due.