The World Food Programme (WFP), the food-assistance wing of the UN, has praised India’s Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), a Covid-relief programme that offers free meals handouts to almost 80 million beneficiaries, as a “notable step to tackle hunger by any developing nation” through the pandemic, Union meals secretary Sudhanshu Pandey has mentioned.
The meals secretary mentioned the WFP has conveyed to the federal government that it wish to undertake a case examine of the scheme in order that different rising economies may benefit from its design and implementation.
“The WFP has praised the scheme and said they would like to use it as a case study and a model that can be shared with others nations,” the meals secretary mentioned. The international physique additionally tweeted about PMGKAY on June 7.
The official additionally mentioned the programme, launched through the first Covid wave and presently in power, concerned a federal spending of almost ₹3 lakh crore, allocation of almost 60 million tonne of foodgrains for a length of 15 months because the pandemic broke out in 2020.
Under PMGKAY, the federal government offers 5 kilos of rice or wheat and one kilo of pulses free each month by way of the general public distribution system. It will proceed until Diwali, November 4, 2021.
The secretary mentioned a examine of the programme by the agency Dalberg discovered that 96% of the beneficiaries benefited from the scheme. The examine was commissioned by the Union finance ministry.
A remark from the Rome-based WPF was not instantly out there and the organisation hasn’t replied to a question despatched to it until the time of going to press.
“The WFP is working to improve the efficiency, accountability and transparency of India’s own subsidised food distribution system, which brings supplies of wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene oil to around 800 million poor people across the country,” a web page on its India operations on its web site states.