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Understanding Food Policy Process in India: An Application to Food Security Act of 2013

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Abstract

Food security is a common challenge among South Asian countries, and it leads to major effects on health outcomes. Two of the Sustainable Development Goals focus on eliminating hunger, promoting good health and enhancing well-being. Hunger and malnutrition are also linked to poverty, since low income limits access to nutritious food, basic health care and proper sanitation. Hunger and malnutrition have long-term impacts on communities, such as stunting in children. Other impacts include infant deaths, low immunity and poor cognitive development. The consequences of hunger and malnutrition are severe and have negative effects in overall development of a country. Even though this has been well understood, developing countries face issues in creating effective policies. To understand the drives of policy change, this paper uses case study approach and applied the Kaleidoscope model to trace the policy process of food security in India. We studied the National Food Security Act of 2013, India, in detail and tested the 16 hypotheses of the kaleidoscope model to understand the policy process. Results indicate that the National Food Security Act was influenced due to political motivations such as central government elections.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Price at which central government sells food grains to state government.

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Correspondence to Suresh Chandra Babu .

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Babu, S.C., Paul, N., Kumar, A. (2020). Understanding Food Policy Process in India: An Application to Food Security Act of 2013. In: Saleth, R., Galab, S., Revathi, E. (eds) Issues and Challenges of Inclusive Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2229-1_7

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