ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS
New Delhi, 31 January 2008
PDS Should Be For Poorest
EXCESS FOOD, NO
MORSEL TO EAT
By Dr. Vinod Mehta
(Former Director, Research, ICSSR)
Over four
years ago, the then Prime Minister Vajpayee admitted that the implementation of
the Public Distribution System (PDS) had not measured up to the public’s
expectation. He observed that the targeted PDS did not seem to be working well
in many places especially in the rural North and North-Eastern States.
He confessed this while inaugurating
a seminar on “Towards a Hunger Free India” organized jointly by the Planning
Commission, World Food Programme and
the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.
At another forum he expressed
his concern over the peculiar dilemma the country faced: of excess food and low consumption. Recall, in 2002 some of
the NGOs had reported tribal deaths due to starvation in Rajasthan’s Baran
district and Kashipur in Orissa. Primarily
because the people could not afford to buy the grains even at the subsidized
rates.
Not only that. Many of them did not even possess the Below
Poverty Line (BPL) cards that entitled them to purchase foodgrains at
subsidized rates in ration shops. Some of them even mortgaged their BPL cards
to money lenders or local traders.
Though no starvation deaths have been reported in recent
times yet it is also well known that food is not reaching the targeted poor
people. It is in this context that the functioning of the PDS needs a closer look,
is suitably revised and revamped so that food reaches the really needy people.
Look at the irony. Despite surplus
food stocks, reportedly at least 50 million Indians are on the brink of
starvation and over 200 million Indians are under-fed. Scandalously, about 60
million tonnes of surplus foodgrain is rotting in various Government warehouses
in the country.
Clearly, the fact that people are
starving when there is a surplus of grains is an indictment of the Government’s
Public Distribution System. The PDS has a network of about 4,60,000 ration
shops across the country through
which grain, sugar, cooking oil etc are sold at subsidized rates.
It is reported that at
the national level leakages from the PDS amount to nearly 1.5 times the actual
amount of grain needed. A Planning Commission report on the PDS states: “In the
year 2003-04, out of 14.07 million tonnes of foodgrain issued to 16 States at
BPL prices from the Central pool, only around 5.93 million tonnes were
delivered to the poor families.”
Also
remember, the need for the PDS was felt in 1958 when the food production had
dropped. Prior to that there was the rationing system which was introduced
during the Second World War to manage the limited food stock but this was discontinued
in 1943. It was again introduced in 1950 to regulate the public distribution of
foodgrain as a deliberate social policy.
The main idea
behind the public distribution system was: a) to provide foodgrain and other
items of daily necessities to the
poorer sections of the society at affordable (subsidized) price; b) to
influence the market prices of cereals to keep them under control and c) to
ensure equity in the matter of distribution of essential
commodities. In other words, the PDS from rationing evolved into a national
food security system.
The PDS was
established during the period when India was facing shortages of
essential agricultural commodities. For a number of years it served the purpose
well for which it was introduced. However, today we have reached a situation
where there is no shortage of foodgrain etc. but still some of the poorer
sections of the society are not getting the foodgrain they need.
This has been
attributed to various factors. One, the PDS itself leaves much to be desired.
The grain, though available in godowns,
is unable to reach those sections of the society which need them the most. The
district Administration has been found wanting in transporting the grain to the
poorest of the people.
Two, even
after subsidies, the price of grain is so high, due to the increase in the
procurement price of grain along with the rising components of cost of the Food
Corporation of India, that many poor people in the target group cannot afford
to buy it. It is common knowledge that approximately 36% of the population live
below the poverty line which means that their income is not sufficient to buy
adequate quantity of food. Also, about 80% of the poor people live in rural and
tribal areas.
Three, the
poorest sections of the society are not able to meet their food requirements because
our PDS concentrates heavily on rice and wheat and leaves out coarse grain like
maize, barley, millet and sorghum.
Moreover, the
Government’s support to rice and wheat has led to the neglect of these grains
which are not only relatively cheaper but the staple diet of many of the rural
people. Since there is no support price for them the farmers are shifting to
wheat and rice production. Hence, we have a situation where the Government
policy has favoured wheat and rice production at the cost of the poor peoples’
staple diet.
However, as the things stand, there is a surplus of grain
but people do not have the sufficient purchasing power to meet their
requirements from the market. Undoubtedly, the country needs to approach this
problem at various levels.
First, the employment opportunities for the BPL people will
have to be increased so that they can earn enough to buy their grain
requirement from the market. Plainly, they need remunerative employment on a
regular basis. The food-for-work programme is not enough. It needs to be
strengthened.
Second, we should look at the institutional arrangements to
distribute the foodgrain directly to the starving people. In such cases there
is no need of selling them any grain as they can’t afford to buy. But at the
same time, institutions like the Panchayats
should see to it that these people do not go hungry. The district Administration
should help the Panchayats organize
community kitchens and the cost for giving food to them should be borne by the Government
itself.
Third, the emphasis should be shifted from the production of
rice and wheat to the production of coarse grain which is cheaper and
affordable for many of the poorer sections of the society. Unlike rice and
wheat, coarse grains do not need a lot of water and fertilizer and are cheaper
to grow in areas of scarce water.
That apart, since the output of grain has reached a comfortable
level, questionably is it essential to keep large quantities of grain in state godowns beyond a certain level? The cost
of storing so much grain is also responsible for keeping the prices very high.
We may have to think of alternative ways of storing grains so that the costs
become lower. Keeping in view the costs involved, it is uneconomical to store
grain by the State beyond a certain level.
One way could be to issue food coupons so that the poorest
people may buy their food requirements from the market and the State reimburses
the money to the shopkeeper. But it will be difficult to implement this in
tribal and remote areas.
However, the nation must find a way out to balance the grain
storage requirement of the nation from the security point of view and the need
of the poorest people to get food. The money saved on storage costs could
perhaps be used to give free grain to the poorest people in times of distress.
The long term solution however, is to generate jobs and give
adequate purchasing power to the poorest of the people so that they can
purchase their own food from the market.---- INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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