Soya magic and desi Marie Antoinettes

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, TNN Oct 9, 2011, 11.34am IST

Many idealists and TV anchors favour highly subsidized rice and wheat for all consumers, not just the poor. They draw no lessons from Indira Gandhi's failed attempt to do exactly this in her Garibi Hatao phase.

India's nutritional indicators are terrible. Child malnutrition , anaemia and vitamin deficiency are among the worst in the world. However, in NSSO surveys only 2% of Indians say they don't get enough to eat. Malnutrition is a bigger problem than hunger .

The populist notion that everybody is entitled to subsidized food is wrong. Why on earth should Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata have such entitlements? Or even our burgeoning middle class, which has done so well in the last two decades?

"Cheap food for all" is a regrettable populist slogan. It sounds idealistic, but in practice means continuing with a failed public distribution system that engenders monumental waste and corruption.

Cash transfers to the poor could combat malnutrition better. However, activists are right in saying that targeting the poor is problematic—unworthy folk get included and many of the poor get excluded. The answer, surely, is self-targeting--providing benefits that only the needy will apply for. Historically , this has been the logic of rural employment schemes too.

In the case of food, self-targeting should aim for universal provision of highly nutritious but unfamiliar foods. One example would be a 70:30 mix of wheat and soya flour, fortified with iron and vitamins. Better-off people will not opt for such an unfamiliar food, but the needy will do so and benefit greatly. Diversion to the open market will fetch little profit, and so decrease.

Many people are dead against this. They say the poor should not be asked to eat things like soya and husk. Alas, this simply reflects ignorance and prejudice against soya.

It may be an unfamiliar food, but to equate it with husk and agricultural waste is ridiculous. The Chinese make bean curd from soya, and bean curd is served in 5-star hotels. Again, 5-star hotels have dishes like tofu salad, also made from soya. Chinese and American millionaires eat soya. Only in India do people view it, wrongly, as fit only for animals.