Possible
but not Probable
The recent debate on Food and food
security bill in our country has put many into a moral quandary. The
statements of the politicians as usual out of league and baseless.
Some of them have suggested that we can buy or prepare a meal for Rs
1, or Rs 5 and one at Rs 12.
The number game is always amazing so
lets put these numbers to test , some of my finding are like this and
it amazes me how many people in politics and especially in the news
media forgets there are thousands of solution and yet there are
virtually no one to speak for the poor and the downtrodden, which
also includes various minorities of India.
Recipe
| Volume | Desciption | unit price | Price (Rs) |
| 200 gm | Atta (wheat flour) 4 chappatis | 20/kg | 4 |
| 100gm | Chick Peas (cholley) | 30/kg | 3 |
| Green chillies 4 chillies | neg | 0.5 | |
| 5 gm | MDH mixed spice 5 gms | 0.75 | |
| 1 tsp | salt | neg | 0.5 |
| 1 tsp | Detergent For cleaning | neg | 0.5 |
| 50 gms | potato | 10/kg | 0.5 |
| 100 ml | kerosene runs for 45 mins** | 15/lit | 1.5 |
| 1 Tbsp 15gm | cooking oil | 50/lit | 0.75 |
| 12 |
** 25 mins for cooking chick peas and
another 20 mins for roti , assuming a slow cooker
tsp = tea spoon 5 gms
tbsp = table spoon 15 gms
Price of water was not included
Net calories from the meal would be
like this
| Base 2000 calories/day *** | Calories |
| Atta (wheat flour) 4 chappatis | 733 |
| Chick Peas (cholley) | 340 |
| cooking oil | 120 |
| 1193 |
*** Contingent on BMI, Age and Gender
Lets take another look at the final
product
| Final Product | |
| 4 chappatis | 200 gm |
| bhaji or salan | 150 Gm |
| 350 Gms |
surely a meal is possible if it is
cooked in our kitchen with basic ingredients – with high inflation
and devalued rupee – this meal could and may be the only hope . We
can still add variation like 100 gms of rice with one banana and
still the price seems to be within the domain of 12 rupees may be
little more.
I think to keep the quality and the
price of the food lower, we need not eat a meal which is semi
processed like wholesome food, cheap fruits like banana only. Now
the question is can we have a meal at RS 5, surely but all the
ingredients have to subsidized like RS 2 /kg rice or wheat and Rs
10/kg chick peas, but surely under any circumstances it is NOT
possible to have this meal at Rs 1. The politician concerned better
proves us wrong or keep his mouth shut with
red delicious!
Lets us this question again – can we
eat this food everyday – surely not we can have many variations
but Rs 12 is an abject number it's got to go up and not down.