Public Distribution System
The public distribution system is a system by which the Indian Government jointly with the state governments distributes subsidized food and non-food items to poor people of India. The commodities which are distributed by this system are rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene. These commodities are distributed by the aid of a network of Fair Price Shops spread across the states in the country. The Food Corporation Of India, an organization at the central level is responsible for the procuring, maintaining and subsequent disbursal to the state governments, which then disburse them to the FPS. The Public Distribution System in addition to being a heavy burden to the exchequer, has been often criticized of being inefficient and of being rampant with corruption.
The public distribution system has innumerable loopholes as elaborated below.
- The first fallout of the PDS is the inadequacy of the commodities. The people who are entitled to receive commodities under this scheme do not often receive them due to the shortage of grains distributed for these purposes.
- The Fair Price Shops are never properly monitored, which is the responsibility of the state government. This lack of supervision engenders opening the shops at irregular hours, with the intention of preventing the beneficiaries from access to the grains, diverting the supply to the open market.
- Due to lack of supervision the FPS owners also overcharge the users, and also under-weigh the commodities taking advantage of the lack of awareness of the poor.
- Bribery to obtain ration cards by people, who are otherwise not entitled to the cheap commodities, leads to a further deficiency of commodity supply.
- The minimum support price, that is the price government sets to acquire farm produce from the farmers, is generally very low, when compared to the open market price, thus attracting low quality produce.
The following are a few stats related to the PDS based on the survey conducted by Transparency International and the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies in year 2005 :
People Using PDS : Urban 26% Rural 52%
Total Value Of Corruption in PDS - 356 crore/year
61 % of the people using PDS believe that PDS is rampant with corruption.
41 % of people using PDS claim that it has increased in the past one year.
53 % of people using PDS believe that the department is not committed to reforms.
Possible Solutions
Food Coupons
In this system the people holding ration cards are issued food vouchers. They can redeem all the commodities they want from any private shop with the help of these coupons. These coupons can be exchanged by the shopkeepers for cash. This un-necessitates the network of fair price shops and all the irregularities and malpractices involved. Also, the price of the commodities are market determined thus eliminating the need for support prices which is a major reason for inadequacy and the poor quality of commodities distributed by the PDS.
Local Procurement and Distribution
Inorder to cut down on the long distribution chain, which leads to inefficiency and long time to reach the end consumers, it would be wise if the local administration takes charge of the procurement, and collect food produce locally. This can be distributed to eligible households.
Community grain fund
The problem of eligibility can be addressed by involving local people in the process. The procurement and storage of the grain can be done at a local level and could be managed by local women. These locals can also identify eligible households through a participatory wealth ranking process. The fund can also lend money to farmers to cultivate crops and take a part of the produce as repayment in kind.
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