The second key lesson is convergence. The right to food cuts across programmes of many sectors—including health, nutrition, agriculture, livelihoods, and labour. This means that in any context, at least a dozen ministries will be operating programmes that have some impact on the right. Converging all of these under a central leadership is critical. Brazil converged as many as 31 programmes which are now overseen by the ministry of food security and combating hunger. In the context of India, nine programmes run by five ministries, along with agencies such as the Food Corporation of India, are the respondents in the right to food case before the Supreme Court. It is imperative that our proposed legislation brings together all these programmes on a single converged platform. The state government of Delhi is currently undertaking a “Mission Convergence” with precisely this objective in mind.
The third key lesson is creating a system of not just administrative, but also legal recourse. This is a key feature of the right to food Acts across countries. In Brazil, the public prosecutors’ office take up violations of human rights, including socio-economic rights, at the local level. Guatemala, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Uganda and South Africa have already put in place or proposed powerful national commissions that act as oversight bodies and also have the power to impose penalties. Although the Supreme Court has appointed its own commissioners to monitor the food and employment schemes of the Indian government, these commissioners do not have the kind of statutory powers to impose penalties that the bodies in other countries do.
The fourth key lesson is the involvement of civil society. All countries which have legislated the right to food have involved civil society organizations, not just in local structures, but also in the national-level oversight bodies. Consea, the Brazilian council that oversees the implementation of the right to food, has as many as 38 civil society representatives. It is important that this engagement is not just in letter, but also in spirit, with governments taking civil society as seriously as it does its own bureaucracy and legislature. Most other countries have also involved civil society in the process of formulating their right to food legislation.
Lastly, the key to the success of right to food legislation has been flexibility and innovation. Uganda has proposed including the “head of the household” as a duty bearer, with penalties—including fines and imprisonment—imposed for non-fulfilment of right to food obligations within the family. While this may not be a desirable innovation for India, it is specific to the national context there. Venezuela, Guatemala and Ecuador have a strong component of food sovereignty, with strong safeguards against genetically modified foods.
The right to food Acts legislated globally are not only leading to stronger legal safeguards for poor and marginalized people, they are also translating into other policies and programmes. These include canteens in urban areas for the poor that serve cooked food at subsidized prices, cash transfer schemes, school meals, supplementary nutrition for infants, minimum food guarantees for labour and social security pensions.