Concern over food bill's implications on child nutrition

Members of various civil society organisations and academia Wednesday expressed concern about implications of food bill on the nutrition and health of children.

They said the food bill should be viewed in the context that about half of India's children are malnourished.

According to members from ActionAid, Right to Education Forum and others, it is necessary to have comprehensive policies to address the issue of malnutrition.

They also demanded that food distributed to children under various central government schemes should be hygienic and produced domestically.

The Food Security Bill aims to provide subsidised foodgrain at prices much below the market rate to around 67 percent of India's 1.2 billion people. The bill would benefit about 800 million people.