Not a single incident of people waiting for food during pandemic: FM

Claiming that there was not a single incident of people waiting for food in the aftermath of the pandemic, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last Friday said India ensured that no one remained hungry through use of technology.

Addressing the high level seminar on strengthening global collaborations for talking food security on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Bali last week, Sitharaman said, “Going through the pandemic and immediately after that India ensured that no one remains hungry even during the severest lockdown with sheer use of technology. And that technology was not put in place anticipating a pandemic. But it ensured that the social welfare measures reached them."

Sitharaman mentioned that even though India witnessed a large scale migration of poor to the hinterland, schemes like one nation one ration ensured that the beneficiary families get their quota of the food grain even if the members are located in different geographies in the country. “With the use of technology, adult migrant workers could withdraw foodgrains from the city while the family could withdraw from where ever they are as all this is digitised,” Sitharaman said.

During the address the finance minister also mentioned that food, fuel and fertilisers are global public goods and ensuring access to these for the developing and emerging economies is critical.