Context :
Open community kitchens, end
hunger, SC tells Centre
/ TOI
/ 19 Jan 2021
Extract :
Bemused
by the Centre's deadpan statement that there are no starvation deaths in the
country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked whether the government seriously
believed that the apex court would accept such a stand when statistics and data
, both from the domestic and foreign surveys, till recently, indicated much to
the country
……
a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli
said :
“
Hunger and malnutrition go hand in hand . Hunger has to be satiated. It is the
duty of the governments to provide food to the section of the population that
stays hungry. Community
Kitchens need
to be spread far and wide , into the rural areas “
CJI Ramana-led bench lamented that during the
electioneering most political parties talk of various freebies and welfare
schemes.
"Many states have popular community kitchen
schemes. So, if they talk about spreading these kitchens far and wide, it would
be popular “
"They (the political parties) are promising so
many freebies . Instead of giving the freebies, if they (political parties
and governments ) could frame schemes to provide food to the
hungry,
these would also be very popular among people. “
The
CJI pointed out to the AG, from the National Family Health Survey Report of the Union Government
that as many as 26 % of the male children
are malnourished , while the percentage of girls are higher
at 30 %
"It
is difficult for the court to frame a straitjacket model National Community Kitchen Scheme, as various regions have
their own peculiarities and food habits. Cooking food and giving it to the
hungry is a difficult task and requires considerable expertise “
The
AG said that the grass-root level democratic governance institutions, the PANCHAYATS,
would be best suited to run the Community Kitchens, as they know which areas
have high prevalence of malnutrition among the population
The
CJI led bench asked the Union Government to also study the manner in which ISKCON
runs the “ Akshya Patra
“ scheme to provide FREE FOOD to poor children in many States
The
bench directed the States to provide all statistics and data about malnutrition
and starvation deaths , the area where its prevalence is higher as well as
other details , in an affidavit within two weeks
The
SC said these affidavits would be provided to the AG for consultations with the
Union Government officials, for FRAMING of a SCHEME ,
in the next ten days.
CJI Ramana reminded the AG that
the majority of the States in their affidavits have said that they were willing
to widen the reach of the COMMUNITY KITCHENS provided
the Centre framed a MODEL SCHEME and gave
FOOD GRAIN support
No starvation death reported in recent
years, Centre tells SC /
HT / 19 Jan 2022
Extract :
The bench, however, replied that the court is not
expecting the Centre to run a scheme for community kitchen but would instead
want it to frame a
model scheme and circulate it to all the states and UTs for their
consideration.
“Government of India should not take it as an adversarial
issue. You must have a practical approach... Why don’t you think of some model scheme ? It is difficult for us to frame a uniform
scheme but the Centre could make a model scheme and
leave it to the states to do the rest,” the bench asked the A-G.
===================================================
MY TAKE :
Dear Hon CJI Ramanaji,
You are absolutely right when you say :
“….It is difficult for the court to frame
a straitjacket model National Community Kitchen
Scheme “
I have following request :
When you hand-over to AG, all
those affidavits received from the States for discussions / consultations with
the Union Government officials for FRAMING of a SCHEME, please ask him to use
the following CONCEPTUAL model :
( source :
Community
Kitchen ? Never too late ! / 01 Dec 2021 )
[ 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 )
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 / 19
Jan 2022
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