5SocialChangers

Plugging the leaks:

Improving reach and

efficiency of the Public

Distribution System

What is Public Distribution system(PDS)?

• PDS is a pioneer project of the Government of India with the

objective to ensure sufficiency and outreach in the supply of

essential commodities at subsidized rates to the poor.

• The rates of these commodities are below the market price, so

that the BPL and APL families can afford and sustain

themselves.

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The mere presence of food in the economy does

not guarantee consumption.

The main issues in the PDS system are:

• Rotting of food grains in the FCI go-downs leading to supply

of inferior quality of goods

• Stabilization of the prices of essential goods

• Deceitful Dealers and middlemen

• Circulation of large no of bogus Ration Cards

• Non- identification of APL and BPL families

• Lack of Accessibility and a gaping lacunae in the number of

the FPS.

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Sealing Leakages through Social Innovation

• Decentralization-Our main focus should be in evolving the PDS system at the village level itself. As of 2002 there are only 2,65,000 Gram Panchayats in India and 6,40,867 villages. Going by this statistics 3 villages committee will have to collaborate and form a committee. This committee should be responsible for procuring and storing the food grains from the farmers from the villages at the right price. The committee should then supply these grains the FPSs run by the SHGs. or Co-operative societies. The FCI should set up storage houses so that the committee is able to store the grains that have been procured.

• Assessment and labelling- The committee should send the collected food grains to the State owned agency to assess the quality, discard the bad quality ones, label the grain bags with the sell by date and the use by date. These grains should then be transported to the storage House

• Transport system-The vehicles transporting the food grains from the storage house to the FPS should be GPS enabled. This will ensure that the truck does not stop anywhere but the FPS. Also, these trucks should also have a uniform colour so that they can be identified by the people. The transport system should be state-owned.

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Farmer Gram

Committee

Fair Price

Shop

Storage

house

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• Computerization-The entire database of the PDS should be computerized. Information off all beneficiaries should be available immediately. A machine generated receipt should be tendered when the beneficiary buys the food grains from the FPS. This receipt will contain all the information of the beneficiary, the amount of food he is entitled to, the price etc.

• Biometric smart cards and Food stamps- Instead of availing food through ration cards, biometric smart cards should be issued to each family which will contain all the details of the family members along with their fingerprints. Also, adequate number of food stamps, a family is eligible for, should be distributed to each member of the family. This way only the finger printed member of that family could come to claim the stamps by being physically present.

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Sealing Leakages through Social Innovation

• Involvement of women- Women should be allowed to play a

major role in the PDS system. Self-Help-Groups (SHGs) should be formed by the women. SHGs run FPS should be built. Women should be given representation in the 3 member village committee.

• Commission or incentives- It should be given to FPS owners

for selling the goods as per the sale by date and use by date or within a reasonable time as per the price decided by the state government

• Food Audits-The state governments should set up a central

institute in their own states, having legal status and autonomy. This institute should be responsible for conducting food audits in the FPS as well as godowns. It should also be granted the power to conduct raids if they have a reasonable suspicion if there is corruption and rampant wastage of food. All the state governments should then submit the food audit to the central government.

Sealing Leakages through Social Innovation

• Storage-After assessing the quality of goods and transporting required

amount of grains to the FPSs, the Gram-Panchayats should send the

excess of food grains to the nearby FCI go-downs. FCI should revamp its

storage techniques, by building Bunker Silos, Bag silos, Staddle stones,

improving ventilation, providing cold storage facilities and frequent use

of pesticides to keep the grains from rotting. In case a village has a

scarcity of a particular essential commodity it should be able to procure

easily the assessed and labelled commodity directly from the FCI.

• Sale of excess food- The excess amount of food which the 3 village

committee has, should be sold in the open market at a lesser cost as a

result of which prices in the open market will also go down creating price

stability rather than incurring high cost in storing the excess and also a

higher cost in getting rid of the rotting grain.

Sealing Leakages through Social Innovation

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Sealing Leakages through Social Innovation

• Penalty for black- marketing and hoarding of goods-

Black marketing and hoarding of goods should be recognized as a

cognizable and non bailable offence. The FPS owners indulging in

such activities should be penalised with minimum of 1 year

imprisonment or a fine not less than Rs.30,000.

• Criminal prosecution-If food is wasted in any way and

through any form, it should become a cognizable and a non bailable

offence. Persons responsible for allowing food grains to rot should

be imprisoned upto minimum of 2 years months or fined upto

Rs.50000 or both.

The leakages are plugged

• Decentralization will help to eliminate the middlemen thus plugging the leakages in the PDS system. The burden of central government will also reduced which will further help in increasing efficiency state to state.

• Assessment of food will ensure that good quality of food grains will be accessible for procurement and labeling the bags with sell by date will ensure, that food reaching the FPSs will be in an edible condition.

• The new GPS enabled transport system will make sure that the bogus trucks don’t come into the picture.

• Computerization will help in reducing the manual paperwork, the data will be accurate and taking a backup of the details will also be feasible.

• The state governments should bear the cost of the PDS.

• The biometric smart cards will substitute the misuse of ration cards which will benefit only that family to which the cards belongs. Food stamps will make sure that the appropriate requirement of food is availed by the consumer.

• Employment of women in this sector will give opportunity to work

shoulder to shoulder with men thus safeguarding gender equality and

reduce corruption

• The program of incentives will guarantee the FPS owners a good income

thus creating more jobs and increasing the number of FPS in the country

and making them more loyal to the state government. It will also ensure

accountability.

• A check and balance mechanism will be incorporated with the frequent

food audits. This will further assure eradication of corruption in the PDS

system thus cropping on the rampant food wastage.

• Good storage facility will ensure a long shelf-life for the food grains.

• Sale of excess food grains in the open market will make certain that there

will be almost no food in the FCI go downs to rot.

• The imposition of Penalties for black marketing, hoarding of goods and

wasting of goods will act as a deterrent to the law breakers from

committing pds related crimes.

The leakages are plugged

• The right to food is a moral and a social right and everyone

irrespective of their class,caste,race or creed should have easy access

to affordable good quality food.

• The PDS leakages can be plugged only if people are involved

directly with the system rather than leaving such an essential right to

the whims and fancies of the Bureaucracy.

• Corporate establishments must contribute as a part of their Corporate

Social Responsibility towards the bearing the social costs involved

in the PDS

• At the end of the day the PDS system should have one basic goal,

that the poorest of the poor should be able to satisfy himself two

square meals a day for himself as well as his family.

There are people i the world so hu gr , that God a ot appear to the e ept i the for of read.

-Mahatma Gandhi

1. Below Poverty Line is an economic benchmark and poverty threshold used by the Govt. of India to indicate economic disadvantage and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid. It is determined using various parameters which vary from state to state and within states.

2. Above Poverty line

3. Food Corporation of India(FCI):It was set up on 14 January 1965 having its first District Office at Thanajuvar rice bowl of Tamil Nadu - and headquarters at Chennai under the Food Corporations Act 1964 to implement the following objectives of the National Food Policy :

• Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers

• Distribution of food grains throughout the country for Public Distribution System Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure National Food Security

• Regulate market price to provide food grains to consumers at a reliable price.

4. Fair Price Shops are distribution channels of Government making available the essential commodities like rice, kerosene, wheat etc., to common man at controlled prices. These shops are maintained to restrict the monopoly practices of traders and check hoarding of essential goods. Fair Price means controlled Price or reasonable price. This price is generally lower to that of market price.

5 . http://censusindia.gov.in/PopulationFinder/Population_Finder.asp

6. The committee shall constitute a 3 members elected from 3 nearby villages within a distance of 5 km.These members will be elected by the Gram Panchayat from each village.At least one member should be a woman in this committee. The members of this committee will be responsible for the functioning of the PDS in the villages.

7. A self-help group (SHG) is a village-based financial intermediary usually composedof 10–20 local women. Most self-help groups are located in India, though SHGs can also be found in other countries, especially in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

8.Sell by date: A date stamped on perishable produce indicating the

date by which it should be sold

9. Use by date: Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink,

medicine and other perishable items are given before they are

considered unsuitable

10.(GPS)Global Positioning System: A global system of U.S. navigati

onalsatellites developed to provide precise positional and velocitydat

a and global time synchronization for air, sea, and lan-d,travel.

11.Bunker Silos:A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos

are used in agriculture to store grain.