scholarly journals The Public Distribution System and Food Security in India

Author(s):  
Neetu Abey George ◽  
Fiona H. McKay

The Public Distribution System (PDS) of India plays a crucial role in reducing food insecurity by acting as a safety net by distributing essentials at a subsidised rate. While the PDS forms a cornerstone of government food and nutrition policy, India continues to be home to a large population of hungry and malnourished people. This review seeks to explore the functioning and efficiency of the PDS in achieving food and nutritional security in India. A comprehensive and systematic search using the key terms “food insecurity” OR “food security” AND “Public Distribution System” OR “PDS” OR “TPDS” AND “India” identified 23 articles which met the inclusion criteria. This review draws attention to the lack of published literature in areas of PDS and food security in India. The findings of the review emphasise the role of PDS in tackling hunger and malnutrition while highlighting its limited role in improving food security and childhood mortality due to operational inefficiencies. The PDS has the potential to act as a solution to food insecurity in India if the operational inefficiencies and environmental footprints are addressed by adequate policy reforms.

2021 ◽  
pp. 048661342110349
Author(s):  
Soumik Sarkar ◽  
Anjan Chakrabarti

Using the methodology of overdetermination, class process of surplus labor as the entry point and socially determined need of food security, we deliver an alternative class-focused rendition of the public distribution system (PDS) in India. We first surmise our theoretical framework to infer that the overdetermined and contradictory relation of class and social needs matter for PDS. Beyond the reasoning of being pro-poor, fair, or wasteful, we deploy this framework to reinterpret the formation of Indian PDS in the 1960s. Its demonstration requires revisiting the historical condition that shaped capital’s passive revolution through the post-independence Indian state and its subsequent crisis arising out of the contradictions and conflicts in the class-need space. We argue that PDS signals a case of success and not failure of capitalism.


Author(s):  
Sabrina Young ◽  
Jenny Guadamuz ◽  
Marian Fitzgibbon ◽  
Joanna Buscemi ◽  
Angela Odoms-Young ◽  
...  

Abstract Federal nutrition assistance programs, especially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are an important safety net for households in the USA. Although few immigrant households are eligible for SNAP, those who need the program are less likely to participate than nonimmigrant households. Documented barriers to participation include language challenges and anti-immigrant rhetoric. However, previous research indicates that when immigrant households do participate in SNAP, their young children experience less food insecurity and the household as a whole makes fewer tradeoffs between food and other necessities. The Public Charge Rule limits ability to obtain a green card based on participation in public assistance programs. A recent change to this rule added programs to include some noncash programs, including SNAP. Although the vast majority of immigrants who are subject to the Public Charge Rule are not eligible for SNAP, misunderstanding of the rule and fear threaten to reduce SNAP enrollment and consequently increase food insecurity in immigrant families. Spillover effects may occur for families not targeted by changes in the Public Charge Rule as well as decreasing access to other safety net programs that are not impacted by the proposed changes, such as The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and school meals programs. In order to support the food security of immigrant families in the USA, we recommend that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State remove all non-cash safety net programs from the Public Charge Rule.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-40
Author(s):  
T Thangalakshmi ◽  
V Suthacini

Food security in India is unfavourably affected by several biotic and socio-political situations. The current position may get worse in the future if timely and suitable actions are not executed and planned. The discipline of human population and land for cultivation, climate change, government policies of public distribution and marketing of food grains and lack of a participatory approach all are committing to check down the availability of foods. Also, crop fecundity seems to be very much unsustainable. The situation has to be remedied by all possible means and citizens must be assured of food security. This review summarises several strategies for crop production and food distribution through the public distribution system. Finally, results indicate that India has achieved self-sufficiency in grains; it is still lagging at the back in the production of oilseeds and pulses. It is also commented that there has been a meaningful increase in the reproduction of rice, wheat, cereals, fruits, vegetables, and other products. Among the specific charges made to lift the agricultural sector from its present slowdown and stagnation, we comprise decorated increased public investment and a severe review of subsidies provided to farmers. To improve the infrastructure, credit facilities, inputs, land and water management, effective marketing and price policies, the diversification of agriculture, strengthening the improvement strategies for tackling climate change, and the strict regulation of land use and diversion of land for non-agricultural activities.


Author(s):  
Vanguru. Naga Satyanarayana ◽  
Dr. M. Rajasekhara Babu

Public Distribution System in India has been one of the most crucial elements in food policy and food security system in the country. Public Distribution System in has close links with food security for the vulnerable segment of population. It is so because Public Distribution System is considered as a principal instrument in the hands of the government for providing safety net to the poor and thedowntrodden. Public Distribution System is the largest distribution network of its kind in the world. It emerged out as rationing measure in the backdrop of Bengal famine as well as a war-time measure during Second World War. The Government of India in an effort to ensure fair supply of food items to all citizens of India instituted Fair Price Shops (FPS) under Public Distribution System (PDS). Essential commodities such as Rice, Wheat, Sugar, Kerosene, etc., are supplied to the targeted underprivileged sections as per the eligibility and at fixed by the Government of India. In spite of the best efforts by Government officials at various levels, there are a few bottlenecks and inconveniences to the targeted citizens in availing the services provided. Over the years, Public Distribution System has expanded enormously as poverty alleviation and food security measure to become a permanent feature of Indian Economy. The Andhra Pradesh state incorporated various modifications from time to time to make its implementation more relevant for the masses and to increase its effectiveness. This paper analyzes that whether Public Distribution System is able to achieve its objective of providing food security to the people. The present paper discusses a brief review of welfare schemes and also makes a study of existing Public Distribution System in Andhra Pradesh. An attempt has been made in this study to ascertain the problems prevailing in Public Distribution System and to recommend suggestions to make Public Distribution System is more effective.


Author(s):  
Ashok Kotwal ◽  
Bharat Ramaswami

This article begins by tracing the development of the Indian model of food distribution. Food subsidies in India are delivered through the public distribution system, consisting of a network of retail outlets through which the government sells grain. The discussions then turn to the outcomes and the performance of the distribution system, food security legislation, the rights approach to food security, debates over food security legislation, lessons from social assistance programs across the world, and political opposition to cash transfers.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001955612110457
Author(s):  
O. Grace Ngullie ◽  
Arib Ahmad Ansari

The sheer extent of the Covid-19 pandemic and its crippling effect on the entire economy gave cold creeps. Suddenly the fragile, one-of-a-kind arrangement through which the daily wagers and the migrant workers were surviving broke down with the imposition of the lockdown, and we had a novel disaster on our hands. In such a hanging-by-thread situation, the adversely affected poor had to rely on the government machinery for sustenance. We attempt to undertake a first-hand evidence-based study of the implementation of the Public Distribution System in Delhi while examining the impact of the pandemic on livelihood and food security. Some policy gaps that we have identified include inconsistency with the quantity and quality of rations received and promised, exclusion and ultimately access to food. Based on the empirical examination of the specific problems faced by the poor on the ground, we recommend policy solutions corresponding to those specific problems which include utilising modern and emerging technologies, creating new cadre for monitoring and upwardly revising the allocation.


2019 ◽  
pp. 175-203
Author(s):  
Jean Drèze

This chapter discusses India's National Food Security Act (NFSA), with a special focus on the public distribution system (PDS). The PDS had a very poor record until recently, but is now improving significantly in many states. In north India, Chhattisgarh took the lead by initiating a series of PDS reforms in the mid‐2000s, with impressive results. Similar reforms were initiated later on in many other states. Even the reformed PDS is far from perfect, but it does protect millions of rural households from hunger and food insecurity. Recent evidence from the National Sample Survey also suggests that the PDS has a substantial impact on poverty. The NFSA is an opportunity to extend PDS reforms across the country and put the PDS on a new footing.


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