Difficult Times Ahead of Public Distribution Scheme : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2:Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections of the population by the Centre and States and the Performance of these Schemes;

Key Phrases: PMGKAY, PDS, NFSA, Rights based approach from Welfare based approach; Chhattisgarh’s PDS reform.

Context:

  • PMGKAY (PM Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana) and provisions under National Food Security Act 2013 through Public Distribution System provided food security to significant rural and urban population during pandemic.
    • PMGKAY was one of the many immediate measures as a part of bouquet of social safety measures in order to provide social safety net to vulnerable households.
  • But this intervention was made possible due to high production of foodgrains and low commodity prices, which calls for a relook due to change in the status quo.

Key Highlights

  • Rationale for success of interventions against hunger and malnutrition.
  • Agriculture Sector outperformed other sectors
    • During the various lockdowns , farmers
      • Harvested their standing rabi crop from late March 2020.
      • Aggressively planted for the next two seasons.
  • Agriculture was the only sector to grow 3.3% in 2020-21 (overall economy contracted by 4.8%).
  • As per CMIE’s, the farm sector added 11 million jobs (2019-20 to 2021-22).
    • During these three years, the rest of the economy shed 15 million jobs.
  • The most significant achievement in FY 21 and 22 was India’s public distribution system (PDS) truly coming of age and delivering at a time of crisis.
    • Sales of rice and wheat under various government schemes totalled 92.9 million tonnes (mt) in 2020-21 and 105.6 mt in 2021-22.
  • Comparing this with previous average offtake
    • 62.5 mt during the first seven years after the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013-14 and
    • 48.4 mt in the seven years preceding the legislation.

About NFSA and PMGKAY

  • The NFSA legally entitled 75% of India’s rural and 50% of the urban population.
    • From welfare to rights based approach.
  • Approx 813.5 million people receive 5 kg of grain per person per month at highly subsidised rates of
    • Rs 2/kg for wheat,
    • Rs 3/kg for rice and
    • Rs 5/kg for pulses
  • PMGKAY was implemented for eight months (April-November) in 2020-21 and 11 months (May-March) of 2021-22.
    • Gave NFSA beneficiaries 5 kg grain per person per month free of cost (Over and above NFSA entitlements).
    • One kg Chana (Pulses) to every household.
  • Till the early 2000s, only a few states (Kerala, TN and AP), had well-functioning PDS.
  • In the late-2000s, Chhattisgarh initiated reforms
    • This was followed by Odisha, MP and West Bengal.

Case Study: Chhattisgarh’s PDS Reforms

  • Curbing diversion/leakages by entrusting the running of FPS (fair price shops) to cooperatives and local bodies (instead of private licensees),
  • Timely allocation
  • Supplying grain directly to PDS outlets (bypassing middle-level distribution agencies),
  • Using IT to track dispatches right from procurement centres to points of sale.

Translation of Food Security to Political Wins

  • Success stories of ensuring the right to food paid off politically as well.
  • Chhattisgarh saw the win of incumbent ruling party.
    • Successive wins in 2008 and 2013 Assembly elections under Raman Singh, who earned the sobriquet “Chawal Waale Baba (rice monk)”.
  • West Bengal saw re-election of Mamta Bannerjee with an enhanced majority in the 2016 West Bengal polls.
  • UP saw re-election on the back of the government’s focus on not just expanding the reach of the PDS, but also last-mile delivery of grain to the intended beneficiaries.

Achievements:

  • A stark change in handling crisis.
    • PDS delivered both when and where it mattered.
    • Unlike the 1943 Bengal or 1966-67 Bihar famines, Covid-19 - India’s first major national disaster not to record widespread starvation.
    • People in the poorest states got something to eat amid massive job and income losses.
  • Provision of social safety net.
    • The PDS was the only effective social safety net during the pandemic.
  • Specific variations from state to state.
    • Kerala leveraged its PDS network to supply free food kits to all ration card holders during form August 2021.
    • These monthly kits contain items (from coconut oil, pulses, sugar and salt to tea, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and soap) on top of PDS allocation.

Challenges:

  • Due to the superabundance of rice and wheat in government granaries, PDS could be expanded.
    • Official wheat procurement is likely to halve this time from last year’s record 43.3 mt, due to crop loss by the abnormal march temperature.
    • Rice stocks are stocked aplenty but the precarious supply situation in fertilisers raises questions about the prospects for the coming kharif season.
    • It would be difficult to pull off the success of PMGKAY due to low procurement, but in the meantime PDS level procurement (60-65 mt) could be maintained.
    • Rising food inflation could significantly increase the procurement cost.

Conclusion:

  • The golden chapter of the PDS was scripted in an environment of low global commodity prices and surplus domestic foodgrain production.
  • The PDS was originally meant to protect ordinary people from extraordinary price rises. Whether it can do that at a time of renewed global inflation remains to be seen.

Source: The Indian Express

Mains Question

Q) Explain the provisions of PM Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana. What are its achievements and the challenges faced in the present time?