Key trends
• The PDS operates through a large distribution network of around 4.89 lakh fair price shops (FPS), and is supplemental in nature**
• The offtake by APL cardholders was negligible except in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal**
• The offtake per BPL (below poverty line) card was high in WB, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu**
• Access to ration card by the land poorest section in the rural areas is minimal. 51% of households in the lowest size class of landholding “<0.01 hectares” had no ration card at all*
• 81% of rural households and 67% of urban households held ration cards*.
• Antyodaya cardholders formed less than 3% of rural households and less than 1% of urban households*
• In rural areas, the percentage of households having Antyodaya cards was 5% for Scheduled Tribes (ST), about 4.5% for Scheduled Castes (SC), and 2% for the other groups*
• The major deficiencies of the TPDS (targeted public distribution system) include: (i) high exclusion and inclusion errors, (ii) non-viability of FPSs, (iii) failure in fulfilling the price stabilization objective, and (iv) leakages**
• There are large errors of exclusion and inclusion in public distribution system and ghost cards are common**
* Public Distribution System (PDS) and Other Sources of Household Consumption, 2004-05, NSS 61st Round, (July 2004 - June 2005), Volume I
** 11th Five-Year Plan, http://planningcommission.gov.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/11th/11_v2/11v2_ch4.pdf
Since the nineteenth Century, the British Raj had vast experience of facing droughts and famines, and very often helplessly. The British Famine Commission had estimated in the 1880s that “…in times of very great scarcity, prices of food grain rise to three times their ordinary amount” (B G Kumar, 1988). It is in this backdrop that the achievement of India’s imperfect Public Distribution System (PDS) become significant. According to the author, it was due to the PDS that the prices of food grain never rose beyond 10 per cent in the worst years of drought, scarcity and failed crops since independence. Compared to 1,50,000 deaths in the 1942 drought (Samra J S 2004), even the most uncharitable estimates of deaths in the 2002 drought, one of the worst in over four decades, were below 100.
It is well known that a large portion of food grain meant for the PDS is pilfered and sold in the black market, and that this sort of corruption is on the rise. However, what is equally true but not so well known is that in some of free India’s worst years of droughts and food scarcity the self sufficiency in food, adequate storage facilities and the PDS brought the country back from the brink. The PDS played three important functions, particularly during droughts and crop failures: a) distribution of food far and wide through fair-price outlets popularly known as the ‘ration’ shops, b) income generation through labour intensive food for work programmes, and c) price stabilization by augmenting availability in the market.
The big achievement of the PDS hence was to stop prices from spiraling to something like three times their normal price as was prevalent during the British Raj. It also played a role in controlling hoarding and black marketing. Within India the best example of public distribution having an impact on the state’s overall wellbeing comes from Kerala. Unlike most of India where the PDS is confined to the urban areas, in Kerala it penetrated the rural areas very well and emerged as an important instrument of public policy against hunger and deprivation. In terms of resources and prosperity Kerala is behind many other states like Punjab and Haryana but is ahead of most in terms of literacy, health services and many social indicators like the life expectancy.
