The Chhattisgarh Food Security Act passed in 2012 addresses the three major components of the hunger syndrome, which need to be attended to, for every human being to have an opportunity for a healthy and productive life. These are: first, adequate dietary calories to prevent under-nutrition; second, adequate quantity of proteins to fight protein hunger; and third, eliminating hidden hunger caused by the deficiency of micronutrients like iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A and vitamin B12.

Thus, the Chhattisgarh Act is designed to solve the hunger problem in a holistic manner. Under this Act, protein hunger is to be eliminated through the supply of pulses, in addition to cereals, and hidden hunger is to be solved through fortified salt. I hope the National Food Security Act, which makes access to the minimum essential calories a legal right, will also help solve concurrently protein-calorie under-nutrition and malnutrition induced by micro-nutrient deficiencies, since an integrated attack on the different components of hunger, as well as the provision of clean drinking water are essential to end the high malnutrition burden prevailing in the country.

The international food stock position and the price volatility prevailing in international markets make it clear that a legal right to food in India can be sustained only with the help of home-grown food. This implies that farmers in India need more attention and assistance. To start with, government should implement the National Policy for Farmers, placed in Parliament in November 2007. The policy proposed by the National Commission on Farmers, which I chaired, calls for a paradigm shift in the measurement of agricultural progress from just production figures to the improvement made in the real income of farmers. In other words, the policy calls for an income orientation to farming. Such a shift is nowhere in sight. If this shift does not happen, it will be difficult to attract youth to farming. The uneconomic nature of farming is accompanied by a steep rise in the price of farmland for use for non-farm purposes. This trend can be arrested only if farming yields good and stable income. A reversal of this trend is not happening, although there is realization that the loss of every hectare of prime farmland will be a blow to the Food Security Act.

The Food Security Act provides the option for substituting grain with cash when necessary.