The
right to food and the struggle with the PDS - POLITY
NEWS: The Right to Food
in India faces challenges due to inefficiencies in the Public Distribution
System (PDS), hindering equitable access to essential food grains.
WHAT’S IN THE NEWS?
Status of Food
Security in India
- India has been ranked 105th out of 127 countries in
the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2024, placing it in the “serious”
category for hunger levels.
- The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
2023 report highlights that approximately 224 million people in
India experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2021-2022.
What is a PDS System?
- The Public Distribution System (PDS) is
a food security system in India that distributes food and other items to
the poor at subsidized prices.
- The
PDS is a joint responsibility of the central and state governments.
- The central government, through the Food Corporation of
India (FCI), procures, stores, transports, and allocates food
grains to the states.
- State governments manage the system at the ground
level, including allocating food within the state, identifying eligible
families, and issuing ration cards.
Challenges with the
PDS System
- Diversion of Food Grains: A significant portion of food grains is
leaked during transportation or diverted to the black market.
- Exclusion Due to Biometric Verification: Many
individuals lose access to monthly rations as their names are removed from
PDS rolls after biometric mismatches during Aadhaar-based verification.
- Corruption at Fair Price Shops (FPS), such
as under-weighing food grains, selling poor-quality goods, or charging
higher prices, undermines the system’s effectiveness.
- Inadequate warehousing facilities lead
to spoilage and wastage of food grains.
Reforms and
Modernization Efforts
- National Food Security Act, 2013: Enacted
to provide legal entitlement to subsidized food grains to two-thirds of
India’s population.
- Ensures
the coverage of 75% of rural and 50% of urban population.
- The Targeted Public Distribution System (Control) Order of 2015 was
issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
- It
established responsibilities for the Centre and States, and set up a
grievance redressal mechanism.
- Digital Ration Cards: The introduction of digital ration cards
and Aadhaar-based biometric authentication aims to eliminate fake and
duplicate ration cards.
- Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): In some regions, DBT has been
implemented, where money is transferred directly to the bank accounts of
beneficiaries instead of providing food grains.
- End-to-End Computerization: The PDS system is being
computerized to improve transparency, minimize leakages, and make
distribution more efficient.
- Food Safety and Quality Monitoring: Various
measures have been taken to improve the quality control of food grains
provided under the PDS.
What is Food Security?
- The concept of Food Security is multifaceted.
Food is as essential for living as air is for breathing. But food
security means something more than getting two square meals. It
has following dimensions:
- Availability: It
means food production within the country, food imports and the stock
stored in government granaries.
- Accessibility: It
means food is within reach of every person without any discrimination.
- Affordability: It
implies that having enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious
food to meet one's dietary needs.
- Thus, Food security is ensured in a country only
when sufficient food is available for everyone, if
everyone has the means to purchase food of acceptable
quality, and if there are no barriers to access.
What is the Current
Framework for Food Security in India?
- Constitutional Provision: Though the Indian
Constitution does not have any explicit provision regarding right
to food, the fundamental right to life enshrined in Article
21 of the Constitution can be interpreted to include the right
to live with human dignity, which may include the right to food
and other basic necessities.
- Buffer Stock: Food Corporation of India (FCI) has the prime
responsibility of procuring the food grains at minimum
support price (MSP) and stored in its warehouses at
different locations and from there it is supplied to the state governments
in terms of requirement.
- Public Distribution System: Over the years, Public
Distribution System has become an important part of Government’s
policy for management of the food economy in the country. PDS
is supplemental in nature and is not intended to make
available the entire requirement of any of the commodity.
- Under
the PDS, presently the commodities namely wheat, rice, sugar and
kerosene are being allocated to the States/UTs for
distribution.
- Some
States/UTs also distribute additional items of mass consumption
through the PDS outlets such as pulses, edible oils, iodized
salt, spices, etc.
- National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA): It
marks a paradigm shift in the approach to food security from
welfare to rights based approach.
- NFSA covers 75%
of the rural population and 50% of the urban population under:
- Antyodaya Anna Yojana: It constitute the poorest
of-the-poor, are entitled to receive 35 kg of
foodgrains per household per month.
- Priority Households (PHH): Households covered under PHH
category are entitled to receive 5 kg of foodgrains per
person per month.
- The eldest
woman of the household of age 18 years or above is mandated
to be the head of the household for the purpose of issuing
ration cards.
- In
addition, the act lays down special provisions for children
between the ages of 6 months and 14 years old, which allows them to
receive a nutritious meal for free through a widespread network of Integrated
Child Development Services (ICDS) centres, known as Anganwadi
Centres.
Way Ahead
- Infrastructure Expansion: Strengthen storage and
transportation facilities to support the growing scale of operations.
- Technological Integration: Leverage artificial intelligence
and blockchain for real-time tracking and reducing inefficiencies.
- Implement social audits and public grievance redressal
mechanisms to hold PDS stakeholders accountable and address issues like
corruption and leakages.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-right-to-food-and-the-struggle-with-the-pds/article69077387.ece