PIL in SC for community kitchens in all states

New Delhi: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to all states and union territories (UTs) to formulate a scheme for community kitchens to combat hunger and malnutrition.

The plea, which is listed for hearing on Monday before a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana, alleged that many children under the age of five die every day due to hunger and malnutrition and this condition was violative of various fundamental rights, including the right to food and life of citizens.

The PIL, filed by social activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Singh and Kunjana Singh, has also sought a direction to the Centre for creating a national food grid for people falling outside the purview of the public distribution scheme.

It also sought issuance of order to the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) for formulating a scheme to mitigate hunger-related deaths.

The plea referred to the state-funded community kitchens being run in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand and Delhi that serve meals at subsidised rates in hygienic conditions. It also referred to the concepts of soup kitchen, meal centre, food kitchen or community kitchen, in other countries, where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price.

The petition, filed through advocates Ashima Mandla and Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, said that the Centre and its various ministries have initiated and implemented various schemes to combat hunger, malnutrition and the resulting starvation, although in reality, effective implementation of the schemes was unclear and fairly limited.