WFP praises India’s covid relief programme, PMGKAY

The WFP is working towards improving the accountability, efficiency, and transparency of India’s own subsidised food distribution system

The World Food Programme (WFP), the food-assistance wing of the UN, has lauded India’s Covid-relief programme, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

Union food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey described the initiative that gives free food handouts to about 80 crore beneficiaries, as a “notable step to tackle hunger by any developing nation” amid the pandemic. 

Pandey said the WFP has informed the government that it is interested in undertaking a case study of the programme so that other emerging economies could take a page out of India’s book.

The scheme launched during the first Covid wave is in force right now. It involved an allocation of about 60-70 million tonnes of foodgrains for a period of 15 months, and federal spending of nearly Rs 3 lakh crore since the pandemic broke out in 2020.

Per the secretary, a study of the programme conducted by the firm Dalberg revealed that 96 per cent of the beneficiaries benefited from the initiative. The Union finance ministry commissioned the study.

The WFP is working towards improving the accountability, efficiency, and transparency of India’s own subsidised food distribution system, which brings supplies of rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene oil to millions of poor people in the country. 

Need for More

According to the Global Hunger Index 2020, India ranked 94 out of 107 countries and a serious level of hunger was found in the nation. Food-security campaigners opined that the nation needs to do more to make sure its malnutrition levels go down.

Ashwin Bhadri, CEO of Equinox Labs, commented, “The fact that the food assistance wing of the United Nations wants to use the PMGKAY scheme as a model for other nations is a matter of pride. It means despite the pandemic; we are on the right track in our battle against food insecurity. We must use this as a catapult and try to be more efficient in our ways to successfully eradicate hunger and poverty from the country.”