Context :
Group of 8 secretaries to create
National Policy for Community Kitchens / Hindu
/ 25 Nov 2021
Extract :
·
With the Supreme Court’s three week deadline looming, the Food
Ministry on Thursday formed a group of eight State Food Secretaries to create
the framework for a community kitchens scheme.
·
At its last hearing on November 16 on a petition regarding starvation
deaths, the apex court had questioned the government’s commitment to
run community kitchens, saying the first responsibility of
every welfare state should be to provide food to people dying of
hunger.
·
The petition had urged the formation of a national
food grid as well as a community kitchens scheme to
ensure that “no person should sleep on an empty stomach” and rued that there is
no official data available on death of persons owing to starvation although India accounts for almost a quarter
of the world’s hungry people.
·
The court pulled up the Centre for its lack of progress in
framing a national policy to run community kitchens in
consultation with State governments, including funds required, and gave it a three
week deadline to do so.
·
Setting up the group of Food Secretaries, Mr. Goyal said a new
community kitchen scheme needed to be simple
and transparent and build on the
four pillars of quality, hygiene, reliability and the spirit of service.
·
The Minister emphasised the need to distribute quality food
grain to deserving beneficiaries on the basis of need, for “a focused and
identified set of people who are vulnerable especially women and children
including homeless, slum dwellers, workers on industrial and construction
sites”.
MY TAKE :
I urge the Group of
Food Secretaries to consider following suggestions when formulating the Scheme
:
[ A ] Involvement / Participation
Ø
This
scheme should involve total involvement of all the States.
They should be made responsible for its implementation and monitoring ( within
their respective States )
[ B ] Organizational Framework
Ø
Much
similar to GST COUNCIL , this scheme must have an MANAGING COUNCIL, consisting
of Food Secretaries from ALL the States
Ø
This
Council may be named “ No One Starving Or Hungry in India (
NOSOHI ) “
Ø
NOSOHI
will formulate Framework - Rules – Regulations – Systems – Procedures etc re
this scheme
Ø
Proposed
Framework may incorporate the desirable elements of Co-operative Movement ,
enshrined in the examples of AMUL
/ LIJJAT Papad / Anganwadi etc., which
would convey the “ Spirit of Service “
[ C ] Generation of Self Employment
Ø
The
scheme should enable a large number of destitute
women to participate and become Self-Employed
Ø
In
the towns / villages / cities, selected by the State Governments, some State
Ministry must be tasked with the job of encouraging formation of Women’s Community Kitchen Co-Op Societies,
who shall manage these Community Kitchens
Ø
To
each such “ approved / enlisted “ Society, State Government will make available
the physical premises ( with water / power ). The size of premises will be
linked to the number of poor hungry persons to be fed by the Society, every day
( pre-determined )
Ø
To
each such Society, the Central Government shall make available ( free of cost )
:
# All Kitchen
equipment ( including Gas Chulhas + Gas Cylinders ). In course of time, when
available
commercially, these gas stoves should be
replaced with Solar
Cookers / Chulhas .
# All tables /
chairs required for the Dining Area ( No food shall
be allowed to be taken out )
# All Storage
equipment, including Refrigerators ( for Cereals and for cooked food )
# All Ancilliary
equipment ( including cleaning equipment )
Downside of my above-mentioned suggestion :
Ø
Creation
of such a huge infrastructure is very difficult in a short time
Ø
Once
created ( at a huge Capital and Recurring Expense ), it is very difficult to
administer
Ø
There
will be leakages and corruption ( in Supply Chain )
I urge the group of
Secretaries to also consider following alternative :
NGO
serves up free meals for kin of poor patients at JJ hospital /
TOI
/ 28 Nov 2021
Highlights :
I
found that an NGO distributes free food here,” said Patil.
He
is among 600 people , all relatives of patients, who benefit from the scheme of
Fazlani Aishabai and Haji Abdul Latif
Charitable Trust. ( info@aishabaitrust.com
)
“ Relatives of many patients eat a vada pav for
lunch or dinner. Two square meals a day in Mumbai costs Rs 150 – 200, and the
poor cannot afford this “, trust Chairman Abdul Kader Fazlani (roc.fazfoundation@sopariwala.com)
had said earlier
Procured from an ISO-certified caterer, the free meals are given
twice a day.
“
As per our Chairman’s instructions, the food should be NUTRITIOUS and there should be no compromise on QUALITY. We have kept it VEGETARIAN so that nobody has any
hesitation in accepting it “ , said Trust CEO Shabir Mushtaq Mir, adding that
they often make surprise visits to the caterer’s kitchen to ensure QUALITY and HYGIENE
“ Beneficiaries get food coupons a day ahead so that the trust’s
VOLUNTEERS know the NUMBER of FOOD PACKETS they need to arrange for that day. We ensure ZERO WASTAGE for the FOOD “, said Mir
Dear Secretaries :
While
drafting your Community
Kitchen Scheme , irrespective
of its proposed structure, I urge you to incorporate the following provisions :
Ø Hungry person who queues
up to collect COUPONS or FOOD PACKET,
will NOT be asked ANY QUESTION, whatsoever . Please do not HUMILIATE a poor hungry human !
Ø He / she will not be asked :
# Domicile – Nationality – Name – Address – any Identity Card /
Document –
Community – Religion –Caste –
jobless etc
Ø Although you may
recommend installation of a FACIAL RECOGNITION system at each kitchen, it
will be for the sole
purpose of keeping count ( of the numbers served each lunch / dinner )
and to avoid DUPLICATE issues to same person.
Ø No beneficiary will be
allowed to take the FOOD PACKET, outside the kitchen. It must be consumed inside
the kitchen’s Dining Area only
Ø However, your scheme should provide for taking home the Food Packets, in cases of OLD-SICK-INVALID-BED RIDDEN, poor humans who just cannot walk up to the nearest kitchen. In such cases, relative / family member / friend or an NGO volunteer may be allowed to take out the food packet, after entering full “ SICK BENEFICIARY DATA “ in a centrally computerized system
Incidentally, all over India, religious trusts are running FREE " Bhojanalaya " , serving meals to thousands of devotees every day. One such Community Kitchen is at Sarangpur in Gujarat which claims to be running this service for past 100 years ( 24 x 7 ) , with 30 lakh ( 3 million ) being served every year
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com
/ 02 Nov 2021
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