Public Distribution System In India

Contd....

Food Security System does not just entail keeping a large buffer stock of food grain; but it also means ensuring that it reaches even the poorest, most isolated segments of the country’s population.

India boasts of a huge reserve of surplus food grain, which by 2002 had swelled to three times the required quantity. But for some reason, mostly due to flawed agricultural policies, this huge reserve did not translate into meeting the food requirement of the entire nation—in fact, not even half of that requirement.

Apart from the high Minimum Support Price set by Government of India, which I had mentioned in my earlier post, the problem also lies with the food distribution system called the Public Distribution System (PDS). PDS in India operates through nearly 4 lakh fair price shops (FPS), of which more than 3 lakh shops are located in rural areas. According to the government, one FPS covers a population of nearly 2,000. This is one of the largest food distribution networks anywhere in the world.

Over the years, the government has constantly looked for new ways to improve the efficiency of PDS. In 1992, the government introduced a revamped PDS in few districts across the country. This improved system was intended mainly to serve areas which were difficult to reach (hilly and tribal areas), urban slums, drought prone areas and desert areas. This was more of a location targeted programme and covered everyone in the area. When even this revamped programme did not show the desired results, the system was further improved to target specific group of people. This was called Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Its introduction followed the criticism that PDS in India was not catering to people below the poverty line. This flaw was addressed in TPDS, under which the population below poverty line (BPL) were issued food grain at extremely low rates. Starting at 10 kg per family per month, the quantity of grain issued was increased gradually to 35 kg per family per month.



To complement the public distribution system through fair price shops, the government has introduced various other schemes like Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), Midday Meal and National Food for Work Scheme. Under Antyodaya Anna Yojana, the government has to provide the rice at Rs 2/kg and wheat at Rs 3/kg to BPL families, while bearing rest of the distribution cost.

All the above schemes have had a positive impact on the number of people aided by PDS, but the number is still extremely low. One has to undertake detailed scrutiny of its actual functioning to find the numerous flaws (mainly hidden) that have left the entire system unstable.

The biggest problem, like in any other government scheme, is corruption. Poor supervision of fair price shops and lack of accountability have spurred a number of middlemen who eat up (literally) a good proportion of the stock meant for the poor. There is also no clarity as to which families should be included in the BPL list and which excluded. This leads to inclusion of families not entitled for food subsidies and exclusion of deserving families.

The other major problem is that the stock assigned to a single family cannot be bought in installments. If a family is not able to buy the entire assigned stock at one go due to lack of money or any other reason, there is no provision to allow them to take a part of it and rest of it later. This is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the efficient functioning of PDS in India.

Many BPL families are not able to acquire ration cards either because they are seasonal migrant workers or because they live in unauthorized colonies. A lot of families also mortgage their ration cards for money.
These are a few major problems that government needs to overcome with immediate effect to make the Public Distribution System really effective.