Right to Food: Still Finding It's Instinct

Abstract

The right to food is a human right to protect the right and interest of all human beings to live in dignity, free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This is the basic right to which all humans are entitled. The right to food is not about support, kindness, gift or alms-giving, but about assuring that all people have the ability to feed themselves in dignity so that they do not confront any situation as to beg. The right to food is protected under international human rights and humanitarian law and the correlative state obligations are equally well-established and well-recognized under international law. The right to food is approved in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as a plethora of other instruments. Noteworthy is also the recognition of the right to food in numerous national constitutions.The Food Security Bill, proposed by National Advisory Council (NCA) is likely to be taken up during the month-long monsoon session of Parliament beginning on July 26, 2010. The 14- member NAC, headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was constituted on 1st June and is expected to advise Indian government on various social programmes like food security guaranteeing cheap grains such as rice and wheat.The food security bill is “HALF BAKED STILL COOKING”.