Role and Effectiveness of Public Distribution System in India

Abstract

This paper highlights agricultural productivity and the food security through public distribution system in a brief manner. Agricultural sector is the backbone of the country’s development and sustenance for 65 per cent of the population in rural areas and approximately more than 58 per cent of the population is still dependent on agriculture. Besides this, to achieve an ambitious rate of growth for the country of as high as 9-10 per cent in the Eleventh Five Year Plan, the country needs a strong pull-up support to agriculture sector which should grow at least at the rate of 4 per cent per annum, all the more, since in 2015-16 the growth in agriculture was merely 8.7 per cent which is feared to go even negative next year. The problems of Public Distribution System have not been uniform in the country. In some states the administration is weak and corrupt. In these states deficiencies regarding huge shortage of stocks, fake supply entries in ration cards, diversion of commodities for sale to open market and bogus ration cards are noted. The paper concludes that globally there is enough food for all and that inequitable access and mismanagement is the main problem for food insecurity. To sum up, technical and policy reforms should be sure. Banking and Information technologies have superior rapidly and should permit governments to bring transparency and pace in all applications without extra expenses. In addition, computerization can help in modernizing the PDS. A number of states are already innovating in PDS execution, and improved performance can be seen in some cases. Although the introduction of modern tools such as smart cards may not be a panacea for all the evils, it can solve many of the problems particularly that of pilferage and spurious beneficiaries. They are like low hanging fruits which can be picked up easily.

Keywords: food security, food consumers, ecological sustainability, anti-poverty programmes, Public Distribution System, National Food Security Act