Social Justice and Food Security: Examining the Right to Food for Marginalized Communities in India

This article examines the delicate interplay between food security and social justice in India with a particular emphasis on the right to food for vulnerable groups. It explores the constitutional foundations, legislative frameworks and seminal judicial interpretations that constitutes the right to food as a facet of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. With a view to understanding the structural lacunae, implementation gap and policy vacuum, it highlights the deficient state action and omissions that undermine food security. Drawing on the significant legal commitments from the State and the schematic interventions such as Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-Day Meal Scheme and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), it analyses the social justice approach to the right to food and frames the theoretical and practical way forward for the food security programmes in India. It tells us how the rights framework can strengthen the food security programmes and how these programmes promote social justice.