ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the legal frameworks of food security in India after the Indian parliament passed the National Food Security Act, making the Right to Food a legal entitlement for three quarters of the rural population and half of the urban population of India. It examines some of the critical challenges of governance that continue to beleaguer the targeted public distribution system, and how the implementation of the Act intends to redress them. Drawing on the inputs from poor beneficiaries, public distribution system officials, local civil society organizations, local politicians, fair price shop allottees and common people, this chapter highlights several less traversed constraints in ensuring food security. Starting out with Amartya Sen's idea that the law stands between the food and the eater, this chapter investigates entitlements to food in poor villages and urban slums in the states.
