The Hindu Business Line : PDS: Bridging the gap better

With India entering the club of rapidly growing economies, the Public Distribution System has been fading into the background. However, given the dichotomy between a rapidly growing urban India and a rural hinterland marked by neglect, new battle cries have surfaced for greater revamp of and accountability from the PDS.

The complaints range from diversion of subsidised food from the PDS to neighbouring countries to sharp cuts in allocation to certain segments of the population.

Coordination challenge

But revamping this government-controlled, and what is possibly the largest food distribution network of its kind in the world, is easier said than done. There are dual masters and control here — the State and the Union Government. And coordination between these two arms of the government is often found wanting.

This is evident from figures available for the total allocation of foodgrains, which is under the Union Government, and off-take, which is under the State government. Though the last figures available are a decade old, they have a story to tell. The off-take was often found to be less than 50 per cent of the total allocation, with in-built fluctuations, and wide temporal variations.

The PDS was introduced to ameliorate poverty and reduce starvation in India. It has been a unique experiment at the global level and received more accolades than censure.

Comparing food production and poverty in Africa and India, Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen lavished praise on the Indian Public Distribution System, stating that markets, by themselves, cannot address questions of poverty and starvation, and in response India had built the largest, though not necessarily the strongest, PDS in the world.

But at the domestic level, the experiment has received scathing criticism. The charges range from a strong urban bias in the distribution network and poor rural network and infrastructure, to inability to identify households living below the poverty line and slipshod distribution of ration cards.

A mixed picture

The PDS has been a strong economic tool in relatively vigilant and socially-elite South Indian States with higher literacy levels, such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

These States have built a strong PDS network in both the urban cities and the sprawling hinterland. This is evident in the consumption pattern of foodgrains distributed through the PDS. As per a Press Note issued by the Government of India, consumption of rice from PDS was most common in Tamil Nadu, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

Granted, South Indian States have a marked bias for rice and the distribution pattern could be in their favour. But even in the consumption of wheat/atta, the most conspicuous component in the North Indian diet, Karnataka, rural areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra, as well as Madhya Pradesh, were at the forefront.

Populous States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan were at the bottom. This, by no means, implies that poverty and starvation are any less intense in these States. Rather, it reflects the poor reach of the PDS network and its inability to address the inherent maladies in the social and economic fabric.

This is further reinforced in the seventh quinquennial survey on Household Consumer Expenditure carried out under the 61st round of the National Sample Survey Organisation. The Survey found that Tamil Nadu, Assam and Andhra Pradesh were at the forefront in consumption of sugar distributed through the PDS, while fewer than 2 per cent of households in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh consumed PDS sugar. This stark contrast in the consumption pattern between States is telling testimony to the presence and absence of PDS infrastructure in terms of distribution network, access to road and transport, and identification and distribution of ration cards.

Reversal of trend

As per the mandate of PDS, the Union Government is responsible for the procurement, transportation and bulk allocation of foodgrains. The State government, in turn, is supposed to look after the allocation, identification of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and issue ration cards, as well as monitor the distribution process.

A survey conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in 1994 had found a strong urban bias in the PDS network. The survey found that 40 per cent of the PDS off-take was in the cities.

Meanwhile, only one-third of rural households had accessed/used the PDS and the food distributed reached only one-fourth of the rural population. More than a decade later, there are strong indications that this trend appears to have been reversed.

The NSSO Survey highlights that 81 per cent of rural households held ration cards as against 67 per cent in urban areas. The number of people who do not have ration cards also weighs heavily in favour of rural India with 18.7 per cent of rural households not possessing ration cards as against 33.1 per cent of their urban counterparts.

The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), which came in for some flak during the early days, also seems to favour rural India. Ever since its launch, the Below Poverty Line (BPL) cardholders have risen to 26.5 per cent in rural areas and 10.5 per cent in urban India. Among the bottom-most rung of rural households, 41 per cent held BPL cards as against 29 per cent in urban India.

Narrowing economic divide

The PDS also seem to have better penetrated the socially deprived sections. Among cardholders in rural India, 10 per cent were from scheduled tribe households, 22 per cent were scheduled caste and 42 per cent were from other backward classes. The remaining constituted just 26 per cent of the total households.

The PDS has also been able to bridge the economic divide to a considerable extent. Over 43 per cent of the households of agricultural labourers and 32 per cent of other labour households in rural areas possessed the card. The relative figures for urban India were far lower.

There might be variations across the States but the off-take of foodgrains for those holding Above Poverty Line cards has been rising rapidly at the national level. There has been criticism that allocation to APL card holders in some States has been cut. These might be a few cases in specific States and do not seem to have an overhang at the national level.

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