The State, Market and Civil Society in Food Security to the Poor: The Need for Complementary Role Approach in India

India’s food policy has a laudable objective to ensure availability of food grains to common people at an affordable price and it has enabled the poor to have access to food through the public distribution system. Further, India’s agricultural policy has been oriented to price stability. Agricultural price policies are designed to protect farmers from price falls. The system of minimum support price and monopoly procurement has put place in order to mop up marketed surpluses. The surpluses mobilized through procurement programmes served the basis for the creation of buffer stock, which in turn was designed to cushion the country from the ravages of food security and food production strategies. Despite many efforts by the Government to ensure food security to the large sections of the population, the starvation, hunger has not kept down. Thus there is the urgency of exploring the factors responsible for such a phenomenon and think wisely to find more viable untried approach, at least in future these problems could be minimized.