Gender justice and food security: The case of public distribution system in India

Abstract

This article contributes to the debates around food and nutrition security from a perspective of gender justice, central to which is the recognition of men and women as having equal rights and entitlements to a life free from hunger and malnutrition. Using both quantitative and qualitative data from the Indian state of Bihar, we assess various elements of gender justice through the functioning of the Public Distribution System, the largest food-based safety net programme in the world. Despite universal entitlements, we find that power relations embedded in local politics, caste and class heterogeneity and political economy considerations, mediate the gendered access to food through state transfers.