14 cr sans food security benefits, hold census: Sonia

In her maiden Zero Hour intervention in the Rajya Sabha, senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi urged the government to complete the population census at the earliest, asserting that an estimated 14 crore Indians are being deprived of their rightful benefits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Gandhi argued that the current beneficiary lists are based on outdated data from the 2011 census, which fails to capture current population figures. Introduced in September 2013 by the UPA government, the NFSA was a landmark initiative designed to ensure food and nutritional security for the nation’s 140 crore people. The legislation has played a critical role in protecting millions of vulnerable households, particularly during crises such as the Covid pandemic. It also formed the foundation for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which provided subsidised food grains to those in need.

Under the NFSA, 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population are eligible to receive subsidised food grains. However, because beneficiary quotas are still determined by the decade-old census, many deserving individuals remain excluded.