Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/making-pds-an-effective-weapon-by-prabha-jagannathan-9126.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Making PDS an Effective Weapon by Prabha Jagannathan | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Making PDS an Effective Weapon by Prabha Jagannathan

In a week when the central food ministry is reviewing the functioning of the much-maligned public distribution system (PDS) and plans to pull up laggard states on poor storage facilities, low grain offtake, high diversion and a persistently slacking programme, an objective relook at the world’s largest grain distribution system is imperative. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has time and again emphasised that streamlining the PDS in the usual-suspect states to improve its functioning nationally is as crucial than working on a credible Right to Food Bill. That somehow seems to have suggested a Vs position with the NCP and the Congress posited on either side.

So, the PDS has, of late, been criticised as dysfunctional even while the proposed Right to Food Act gets hailed. But a March 2011 study on PDS grain diversions — Trends in Diversion of PDS Grain, by Reetika Khera of IIT-Delhi, and the department of economics, DSE — has concluded that despite innumerable ailments, the PDS is working and it has to be viewed as a glass both half full and half empty. It forms a crucial part of the right-to-food programme, which is why there is more urgent need than ever to study in-depth why some states have been consistently good performers, others remained poor performers and why others are improving and how that improvement can be replicated in the languishing PDS states.

Categorising states into ‘functional’, ‘reforming’ and ‘languishing’ states based on their performance in several key counts including leakage, Ms Khera has suggested two key reasons for the revival, albeit marginally, of the PDS in the second category: one, increased subsidy commitment over that of the Centre’s, and two, a rising gap in price for food between the PDS price and open market prices over the years, leading to higher offtake in both states where the PDS is functioning well and in those where it is improving.
 
The latter observation is crucial also in view of the persistently high food inflation over the last several weeks and recent studies on the impact of this on poverty levels in the country both by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The ADB study suggested that a 10% rise in prices earlier this year for food impacted poverty numbers to the extent of 2.9%, pushing that many people below the poverty line who would otherwise have risen above it. The numbers impacted corresponding to a 20% hike in food prices were projected higher. Left unchecked for the rest of the year, high food prices could badly undermine any recent gains in poverty alleviation, the FAO said. That eventuality is central to another important observation made by the study on flawed and outdated poverty numbers by the Planning Commission on which the entire base of the PDS rests.

Citing empirical data, the study categorises PDS states into functioning — all southern states, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra — reforming — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh — and languishing — mostly eastern states including Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. The study acknowledges that grain leakage for sale in the open market remains a big worry. But Ms Khera contends that dubbing the system ‘dysfunctional’ on the whole without addressing the fundamental flaws would be gross injustice to both categories of states, especially the first.

Notwithstanding that, a crucial issue has emerged since 2006 to hound the efficacy of the PDS in several states: the problem of the real poor, the study acknowledges. Ms Khera suggests that there is an urgent need for state-wise poverty count to be revised and set right to ensure that the PDS works effectively to reach the poorest. The early TPDS eligible poor households were based on the Planning Commission’s restricted poverty estimates of 1993-94. The estimates were ‘too low’ and caused ‘poor design and implementation of the survey for selection of BPL households’, she argues.

In fact, 2004-05 data from the NSS shows that only 53% of rural households belonging to the poorest monthly per-capita expenditure quintile had a BPL ration card. To resolve the problem, several states started widening subsidised grain coverage at their own expense. Currently, the PDS is quasi-universal in several states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Some states increased subsidy to targeted PDS-eligible households (Rajasthan) and others reduced prices compared to Delhi’s central issue price, or CIP (Jharkhand). In Madhya Pradesh, additional subsidy was borne by the state after reducing the quantity of subsidised grain to eligible households from 35 kg per household per month to 20 kg.

Singling out Andhra Pradesh — additional coverage over TPDS poor and additional subsidy over CIP that allows rice at . 2 per kg — Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu among the functioning PDS states for attention, Ms Khera says nearuniversalisation of PDS has been possible primarily due to extra commitment of resources by the state. Of these, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu show a steady record of effectively-run welfare programmes. Kerala alone, among the functioning states, however, presents a counter-example in grain offtake. In the pre-1997 period, this was the only state where universal PDS existed. The TPDS, though, curtailed its PDS coverage and impacted on per-capita purchase and showed up in a drop in grain offtake figures.

So why are ‘reforming’ states doing so? Singling out posterboy state Chhattisgarh for attention, the author says that both increased state subsidy and expanded poverty reach by PDS are reasons. Rural poor coverage here has gone up from 45% to 80%, for instance, resulting in higher offtake. In other states where the PDS is reviving, reduction in issue price compared to the CIP has also reinforced per-capita purchase. Apart from such demand-side reasons, supply-side reasons such as stringent monitoring could also be contributing factors. However, it is the widening gap between PDS grain issue price and open market prices that have served to hike offtake in both the functioning and the reviving states, Ms Khera says.