Public Distribution System & Inclusion in India

14th May 2014

Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development

Ruth Kattumuri India Observatory & Asia Research Centre London School of Economics

Global Hunger Index (GHI)

GHI Rank

2009 2013

Country 1981 1992 1997 2003 2009 2013

N/A Brazil 10.4 8.5 6.7 5.4 <5 <5

N/A Russian

Federation

- - 3.8 2.9 <5 <5

5 4 China 20.1 12.6 8.6 8.2 5.7 5.5

65 63 India 41.2 32.8 25.7 25.7 23.9 21.3

35 43 Sri Lanka 24.9 22.4 21.9 16.6 13.7 15.6

55 49 Nepal 43.3 27.7 27.8 24.5 19.8 17.3

58 57 Pakistan 33.6 26.0 23.6 21.7 21.0 19.3

67 58 Bangladesh 44.4 36.5 35.7 28.3 24.7 19.4

N/A Egypt 13.6 6.6 7.0 5.2 <5 <5

14 4 South Africa - 7.5 7.3 7.7 7.0 5.4

38 56 Uganda 24.6 21.8 21.7 18.6 14.8 19.2

GHI by Gross National Income per capita

India State Hunger Index

ISHI- IFPRI http://www.ifpri.org/blog/india-state-hunger-index-may-improve-food-security-act

India State Hunger Indicators, 2008

Regional Distribution of Undernourished

Public Distribution System (PDS),India • PDS existed from before independence.

• Wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene are provided through ‘fair price shops’.

• Managed jointly by Central and State governments. Centre responsible for procurement, storage, transportation and allocation. State for distribution, identification of families below poverty line, issuing cards, supervision and monitoring.

• Maternity Benefits Act (1961); Integrated Child Development Services (1975); Food for Work Programme (1977).

• The mid-day meal scheme was first introduced in 1925 in Madras Presidency. CM K Kamaraj, set up a ‘poor feeding’ programme in Tamil Nadu (TN) in 1956. CM MG Ramachandran renewed efforts in 1982 as ‘nutritious noon meal scheme’ to enable children to go to school and improve their nutrition.

• Others States followed –Gujarat and Kerala in 1980s; Andhra Pradesh-1982, Punjab & UP-1995, Karnataka-2002, Maharastra-2003

• National programme for Nutrition support to primary education, introduced by Narasimha Rao government in 1995

• Cost of food subsidy has been about 1% of GDP

• Percent of households accessing PDS increasing – 28% in 2004/5, 40% in 2009/10; 44% in 2011/12

National Food Security Bill • Bill passed in September 2013 (Lok Sabha passed on 26th August) • Seeks to provide food grains to 67% (circa 800 million) of the population

(75% rural and 50% urban) through Targeted Public Distribution System (since 1997). Of these, 46% rural and 28% urban estimated as priority households and others are general households

• Beneficiary entitled to a monthly quota of 5 kg of rice, wheat or coarse cereals per person at Rs.3, Rs. 2 and Re.1 per kg.

• Beneficiaries to be identified by the States based on parameters prescribed by the Union Govt.

• Nutritional standards: meals entitlements includes specific groups, pregnant women, lactating mothers, children aged 6months – 14 years, malnourished children, disaster affected persons, destitute, homeless and starving persons

• Eldest woman (not <18 years of age) in every eligible household shall be head of household for issue of ration cards. Male will be head only if household has no woman >18 years of age

• To improve implementation, transparency and accountability, and mechanisms to address grievances

• Costs circa Rs. 1.30 lakh crore (additional subsidy of Rs. 28,000 crore)

Karnataka food security programme • PDS covers 40 million priority (circa 67% of Karnataka state -76%

urban and 32% rural) • Anna Bhagya scheme from July 2013 provides 10kg rice, 1 kg wheat

per person subject to a maximum of 30kg per family @ Re.1 per kg for any type of food grains (earlier provision of 4kg rice, 1kg wheat per person subject to a maximum of 20kg rice and 3kg wheat per family @Rs.3 per kg rice, Rs.2 per kg wheat).

• Increase in subsidy per kg from Rs.22 to Rs.24 is affordable to government and has greatly reduced costs to card holders from Rs.90 to Rs.30 per month.

• Supply to Above Poverty Line (APL) families stopped • Improving implementation with – technology (photo + biometrics

+), addressing complaints, inspection and vigilance of distribution units, improved storage, linking various identity cards/schemes

• Expanding provision – hot meals kitchen; additional commodities such as salt, pulses, 1kg sugar, I litre cooking oil, ragi/jowar

• Challenges – implementation (i) inclusion of eligible, exclusion of ineligible, (ii) reduce leakage

Food Security Programmes – Benefits

• Food security is inherently interlinked with economic, social and environmental development

• Development of human capital • Benefits several first generation learners from a range of socio-

economic backgrounds in urban and rural areas. Studies indicate drop out rate reduced, improvement in attendance (particularly girls) and enrolment of children from minority communities has increased, reduction in teacher absenteeism

• Improvement of school infrastructure • Improvements in health, nutrition and hygiene • Provides employment to women, including widows and disadvantaged

communities • Provides for various disadvantaged groups including elderly and

disabled • Enables social equality and inclusion • Encourages energy saving methods, emissions reduction and water conservation

Food Security programmes – Challenges

• Implementation and transparency • Leakages in distribution and disbursement • Accurate identification of target population (inclusion of all eligible) • Monitoring and evaluation • Irregular disbursement of funds and supplies to distribution

centres, consequently irregular provision to cardholders • Misappropriation by distributors • Lack of adequate availability of necessary food grains within a state • Limited storage facilities, increases wastage • Climate change adds to the challenges as it impacts availability,

stability, access and utilization of food • Limited co-ordination between various service delivery

programmes and mechanisms • Variation between States

Conclusions • Strong political will and administrative leadership and commitment at

the Centre, in States and locally, is required for efficient implementation of Food Security Programmes in India:

– Enable effective implementation in rural and urban areas

– New technologies and mechanisms to enhance transparency

– Improve mechanisms for procurement, storage and distribution

– Strengthen co-ordination between all food security, poverty alleviation and inclusion programmes

– Improve monitoring and evaluation

– Regular reforms

– Improve storage facilities; reduce wastage

– Enable reduction of food expenditure per household;

– Enhance human capital: educational attainment and livelihoods, improve health and nutrition, reduce child mortality

– Improve investment and productivity in agriculture

– Manage food insecurity risk due to climate change