Even as results of a pilot study on direct cash transfers in lieu of rations are still awaited, postal staff in Delhi are getting slum-dwellers to open accounts.

“We are being asked to pay Rs 50 and submit two photos, after which money will be transferred in our post office accounts,” Ms Sonia, from the Kusumpur Pahadi slum area in Delhi, told the media. She said most people in the area may be keen on cash, but not as a replacement for rations.

Survey

In fact, 91.4 per cent of respondents of a survey released on Thursday said that they preferred a reformed Public Distribution System (PDS) over cash transfers.

Demanding better PDS targeting to ensure food security, Ms Dipa Sinha, a research scholar associated with Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, which conducted the survey, said only 31.5 per cent of daily wage labourers in vulnerable locations had BPL cards. To top this, about 60 per cent of those who had ration cards complained of not getting their entitlement regularly.

“The poor are already distressed as the Delhi government has reduced the monthly BPL kerosene quota in the PDS from 22 litre to 10.5 litre,” said Ms Sahba Farooqui of the Janwadi Mahila Samity.

‘Bad experience'

On the government's plan to index cash transfers to inflation, Ms Sinha said the experience with cash schemes had not been good so far.

She cited the example of old age pension that started in 1998 at Rs 75 and remained so till 2006, when it was raised to Rs 275. In any case, only 63 per cent in the survey said they received the pension regularly, she added.

The survey by Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, an umbrella of several rights organisations, questioned about 4,000 households in 55 slums and resettlement colonies in Delhi.

The Delhi Government is in favour of dismantling of the PDS in favour of direct cash transfers to reduce leakages, in line with World Bank recommendations.

In partnership with SEWA and India Development Foundation, a pilot study funded by UNDP is on with 100 families in Raghubir Nagar. The results of the pilot are still awaited.

>aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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