The activists highlighted that already, the state surfers from acute malnutrition, stunting and other indicators of poor health, and this situation will worsen without intervention.
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Volunteers and activists in Karnataka working to ensure that people get sufficient and sustainable nutrition during this COVID-19 induced nationwide lockdown, have asked the state government to give lentils and other essentials as part of the PDS (public distribution system). Under the aegis of Navvu Bharateeyaru, the group has also written to the Additional Chief Secretary (Food and Civil Supplies) V Manjula who is also the chairperson of the state government’s relief committee, highlighting that the nutritional requirements of daily wage earners is not being met due to the resultant economic crisis. The activists highlighted that already, the state surfers from acute malnutrition, stunting and other indicators of poor health, and this situation will worsen without intervention. They pointed out that even for bare sustenance, people need sufficient quantities of lentil, vegetables, milk, sugar/jaggery, oil as stipulated by the state minimum wage advisory board, in addition to rice/wheat. On March 22, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had said that all beneficiaries of the PDS system (ration card holders) will get ration for the months of April and May. Speaking on this, lawyer-activist, Vinay Sreenivasa, who is part of Navvu Bharateeyaru, said, “Karnataka government, to all its PDS card holders, is giving only rice and wheat. No dal or anything else. They have said they will start giving dal only from May.” He added, “Karnataka already has very poor nutrition indicators. Without any source of protein, the people in need will do even worse.” He pointed out that compared to Karnataka, neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala are giving dal, cooking oil, and channa, while Telangana is giving cash to people. Compared to this, the ration kits prepared by the Karnataka Labour Department to give to its department card holders – who are mostly migrants – is a little better as they have oil and lentils among other things as part of the package. But only 60,000 such kits have been distributed. In a related development, regarding the hunger helpline (155214) launched by the state government on March 28, activists have said that many requests for grocery and cooked food were not being attended to. Taking cognisance of the matter, the Karnataka High Court too on Friday asked the government to make the helpline effective while hearing a case filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). As part of the same hearing, Chief Justice of Karnataka AS Oka has also asked the state government to ensure that supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) cylinders are made available. In Bengaluru city alone, the Dasoha portal set up by the government said that as of date it has delivered 12,51,650 packets of food, with respect to 15,45,242 requests.
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