The Food Security Bill introduced in Parliament last week, even when it is passed, won’t be on the same footing as the right to education. It will not be enforceable through the courts. And yet, the promise it holds out is huge. Nearly two-thirds of India — 75 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban — should be able to buy rice for three rupees a kg, wheat for two rupees, and coarse grains for just a rupee, provided the system can be run without corruption, and can be kept provisioned. This, of course, is a tall order in a society where the rich and the capable, and officials and middlemen, happily milk the system for all it is worth. This is why ration shops don’t work well except in some states, and in any case the UPA-1 government and its predecessor undercut the public distribution system, on which massive reliance will have to be placed if low-priced foodgrains are indeed to be made available to the needy sections. While there was a furore in the country recently when Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia proclaimed, citing official data, that those earning Rs 32 a day could not be classified as poor, there is ironically also dismay in some quarters at the thought of offering foodgrains at below market price to those in need. The arguments are that nearly 25 per cent of all grains (about 55 million tonnes) will be sucked out of the open market to support the food security initiative, driving up prices (for the non-poor); and two, fiscal deficit — already running at about 5.5 per cent — could increase, for the government has to foot the bill, which means either diverting funds from other sectors or raising the food subsidy. These are not empty concerns, and yet contradictions must be managed in the system as a whole. At the moment, Rs 418,000 crores are let go by the government in the form of exemptions and subsidies to the non-farm sector. An unconscionably high proportion of taxes which are due to the exchequer are written off. About five lakh tonnes of foodgrains either rot in godowns across the country, are eaten by rats, or are stored in the open and are lost. Agriculture yield cannot be raised for want of sufficient investment. Can something be done about all of these in order to make basic food available to the bulk of the population, which will otherwise be incapable of providing active and healthy labour force to society? Just think about the quarter million farmer suicides in the past 16 years, children foraging for food in garbage bins, and the menacing — and growing — Naxalite problem.