Nearly 7 lakh households, mostly BPL families, don’t have ration cards in Jharkhand. The Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries list hasn’t been updated for over 5 years in the State. Despite Jharkhand government announcing 10 kg food grain from Mukhiyas’ contingency fund for the needy, the Right to Food campaign has said that they have received many reports of starvation deaths in Jharkhand and other places. They have now asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to release the food stocks through the PDS. FCI has 77 million tonnes of stock in its godowns, which is thrice the buffer stock norms. 

In this episode of The Suno India Spoke, Vaishali Pandiyen, reporter for Suno India spoke to Professor Dipa Sinha from Ambedkar University, a member of Right to Food campaign, and Vipul Paikra and Vivek Kumar, from Right to Food campaign in Jharkhand, to understand what the poor of Jharkhand are facing due to the lockdown. Additional Reporting for the episode by Anumeha Yadav. Parts of this episode are in Hindi. 

See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.