What 'Amma canteens' do for food security: My first visit in course of studying the phenomenon

N Raghunath is currently pursuing his Masters in Economics from the Madras Christian College. A civil-services aspirant, Raghunath is in the middle of a study on food security with a special focus on Amma Unavagam (budget canteens initiated by the Tamil Nadu government) as it is a unique initiative which addresses food security for the urban poor.

This is Raghunath’s first account of his experience at an Amma Unavagam during the course of his study:

By N Raghunath 

“Inexpensiveness is the USP and it eclipses other deficiencies”, began an expatriate working in the Gulf, who was visiting his hometown on a holiday.  It was a Sunday morning, so people were having breakfast in a relaxed and nonchalant manner. The hustle and bustle that informs the Amma Unavagam at Santhome during weekdays was playing truant after a ‘rush-hour’ Saturday. The food was given gratis across all the canteens on 24^th May, as the Ms. J. Jayalalithaa took charge as the Chief Minister of the state for the fifth time, after a brief period of legally-imposed hibernation.

The gentleman working in Qatar was having breakfast with his elder brother who is a local cop. While the former had a conservative take on the quality of the food, the latter seemed totally satisfied. He has been eating there regularly for over a month, as his wife and children had left the city to visit their native place during the summer vacation. Since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I decided to have a couple of idlis and a plate of pongal. The customers were not served second-rate food merely because they happened to be beneficiaries of a subsidized food programme.  I was able to see people queuing up in a disciplined manner and they were treated courteously.

The unavagam at Santhome was the first of the over 200 canteens opened in Chennai, inaugurated by the Chief Minister herself. One of the pervasive concerns that has emerged in the wake of close spatial distribution of the unavagams is the negative externality that is borne by the push-cart eateries in the vicinity. “That is not a matter of concern here as their presence is marginal”, said the local cop and when I raised the issue with the canteen supervisor, she acquiesced to the fact. The concern is overwhelmingly borne by the very sections that support foreign investment in retail, food industry and food-processing that would potentially affect the small business and petty traders. Now they seem to be the champions of the disadvantaged, their conscience being brought out of mothballs, finally.

The unavagam at Santhome can boast of a very good mix of beneficiaries. The area is largely populated by the well-heeled and there is a pretty decent presence of church-goers on Sundays. Anyone who has kept himself/herself plugged into the social processes that have been unfolding over the last 15 years can see the massive influx of people from rural areas into the metropolitan cities. The Census 2011 finding that urban India added more population than rural India between 2001 and 2011, a first in India’s post-Independence history, lends credence to that observation. What is important here is the increase in the number of Census Towns, as shanty towns and slum dwellings have proliferated in the urban periphery on the back of a massive construction boom.

Keeping this background in mind, I scouted for construction workers and labourers and fortunately, struck conversations with quite a few of them. They have all come in from the northern part of the State, from districts like as Vellore, Dharmapuri and Villupuram. Though Tamil Nadu has a very good spatial spread of a large number of small, medium and large towns/cities that opens up the scope for non-farm livelihood opportunities as the agrarian crisis intensifies, one can nevertheless notice people migrating towards specific destinations that are experiencing a gigantic construction and service sector boom. Since Chennai happens to be the ultimate crucible, it has garnered a significant chunk of the intra-state rural-urban migration and there is a steady flow of migrants from other parts of the country into the city, to boot.

Many construction workers I spoke to resided in makeshift houses and shanties since they were on a one-month contract. They did not bring their families with them, so they were the only beneficiaries of the scheme. But an interesting point made by the supervisor in this regard is the relative lull in the first 12-14 of the month and the brisk sales in the latter half. This is because people tend to diversify their consumption basket as soon as they draw their salary/wages and start becoming frugal midway through the month. The dynamic in the case of wage-labourers can be tricky and complex, as different groups draw wages at different points in time. This aspect needs further investigation.

Some of them have had food at different unavagams, so they were able to make a comparison of the quality of food served. “Kariveppilai sadham is excellent in Besant Nagar”, said one, who has eaten in six unavagams in different areas. The area is dotted by ICICI, HDFC, IOB and Tamilnadu Co-operative Bank and this translates into bank-employee footfalls into the canteen. The supervisor had a smug smile on her face when she said people working in the SUN Network patronize the canteen.

The only fly in the ointment seems to be the flat sales of chappatis served at night for dinner. For over a year now, chappatis are prepared using the chappati-makers in centralized kitchens, each catering to the needs of 12-15 canteens. The supervisor spoke ruefully about the sharp decline in demand from 2000 chappatis a day (when they were prepared manually) to less than 900. This is because the chappati becomes appalam (pappad) when the prepared ones coming in from the centralized kitchen are heated. It becomes stale and insipid. But this has very little impact on the day-crowd that throngs the canteen for breakfast and lunch. On a daily basis, 15-20 kilograms of sambar rice is prepared and there is virtually no scope for wastage. On the flipside, they face shortages occasionally and the complaints are duly registered in the ‘complaint book’ maintained honestly.

While the supervisor attested that push cart eateries in their ward were not victimized, she admitted that the Light-house ward (which is less than 2 kilometres away), saw that segment take a significant hit as people coming to the beach in the morning and evening have shifted loyalties. Another oddity that struck me deeply was the preponderance of male beneficiaries despite the food being served by women in all the canteens. For instance, the Kariveppilai sadham (curry-leaves rice) was added in the menu to address the issue of anemia which is widespread among women. But, for every ten male beneficiaries, only three women seem to be benefitting from the idea. One woman I spoke to made this psycho-sociological observation. She said that housewives consider it odd to eat food outside cooked by other women.

As I was about to leave the canteen, I asked a retired old man (who familiarizes the place) if he would continue to use the service with such consistency if the prices are revised upwards. He employed his political nous and made this wry remark – ‘Yes, the prices will be revised upwards and I will continue to be a loyal customer but all this will happen only if the AIADMK wins the next Assembly election.’

Images courtesy N Raghunath. The author can be reached at raghind@gmail.com