12 districts of Bihar identified as "highly food insecure"

As many as 12 districts in North-Eastern Bihar have been identified as major “hotspots” in food security in the state, according to the Food Security Atlas on Rural Bihar .

The report, prepared by the Institute for Human Development (IHD) in conjunction with the United Nation's World Food Programme (UNWFP), provides a comprehensive food security information system for the state while pin-pointing the most vulnerable districts that are in dire need of targeted intervention.

The atlas indicates the unevenness of food security spread across Bihar, with 13 districts which include Araria, Purnia, Katihar, Banka, Lakhisarai and Darbhanga ranked as “severely insecure” while Kishanganj and Jamui are ranked as “extremely insecure” on a food availability scale of 0-1.

Twelve of these districts have been grouped as “Special Category Districts” (SCD), requiring immediate government intervention.

The atlas analyses the state's trouble zones with regard to low yield of food grains, high child mortality, low female literacy and low access to primary health care.

“Its purpose is to whet the appetite for debate among the state's policy-makers on ways of designing district-level interventions with the aim to ultimately improve the access of the poor to adequate food,” said Prof. Abhijit Sen, member, Planning Commission, during the release of the atlas.

According to the study, Bihar's poor female literacy rate - which stands at a low 33.64% (as against the All-India level of 54.2%) - was the most significant factor in aggravating Food Insecurity and Child Mortality in the rural regions.

However, as the atlas' researchers themselves admit, the study has been forced to consider proxies, as data for outcome of food security was neither available nor accessible at the district level.

Though bulk of the data was based on the 2001 Census, Prof. Sen remarked that the important aspect about the compilation was that “it showed the districts that were in dire need of urgent intervention.”

He further stressed on the need to enhance the food absorption index i.e. increasing the nutrient intake of the body.

“This [increasing the absorption index] depends on its complementary variables such as the access to primary health centres (PHCs) and safe drinking water. However, these two variables also bear quite a strong correlation with the food security index as well, and hence are important in enhancing it,” Prof. Sen said.

According to the report, the state fared poorly in terms of critical health infrastructure with the ratio of number of doctors per lakh population standing at a mere 32.7 as against an All-India figure of 60.

According to the report, the percentage of BPL households covered by the Public Distribution System in Bihar is less than one-third of the all-India level.

The atlas makes three specific suggestions to overcome the problems ailing the functioning of the state's PDS which include increasing the number of State Food Corporation godowns and increasing awareness among the public about the new “food coupon system.”

Responding to the introduction of conditional cash transfers to repair the defects within the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), Prof. Sen remarked that the idea of the “rational consumer,” as endorsed by Bihar Chief Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar and his Delhi counterpart Mrs. Sheila Dixit, was “questionable”.

“There is also the problem of deserving people not figuring in the BPL list at all. For them, it will be of no account whether a system of cash transfers or a PDS is in place,” he remarked.

The IHD and the UNWFP have collaborated to produce Rural Food Security Atlases on eight Indian states so far.