Expanding PDS coverage

(MainsGS3:Public Distribution System-objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security)

Context:

• The humanitarian crisis resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown, made it apparent that too many were still excluded from the PDS.
• But the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, through the Public Distribution System (PDS), provides a crucial safety net for roughly 800 million people.

The exclusion problem:

• The exclusion problem could be because the NFSA coverage ratios were too low to start with, or due to the ‘freeze’ in coverage in absolute terms (around 800 million).
• Between the last Census in 2011 and today, population increase has not been accounted for in determining the number of ration cards. 
• PDS coverage is determined by Section 3(2) of the NFSA 2013 which states that the entitlements of eligible households “shall extend up to seventy-five per cent of the rural population and up to fifty per cent. 
• of the urban population.” Section 9 of NFSA required that the total number of persons to be covered “shall be calculated on the basis of the population estimates as per the census of which the relevant figures have been published.”

Judicial intervention:

• Government inaction led to the matter being taken to the Supreme Court of India in the Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers case. 
• The Court agreed that the prayer to increase coverage “seems to be genuine and justified”. 
• It directed the Union of India to “come out with a formula and/or appropriate policy/scheme, if any, so that the benefits under NFSA are not restricted as per the census of 2011 and more and more needy persons/citizens get the benefit under the National Food Security Act”. 
• Going further, the Court said that the Government could consider “projection of population increase” to resolve this issue.

Taking responsibilities:

• On account of the hardship faced by people, several State governments have used their own resources to expand coverage beyond the centrally determined quotas. 
• According to estimates in 2020, there were 809 million NFSA PDS beneficiaries supported by the central government. 
• An additional 90 million people had access to the same (or more) benefits from the PDS as NFSA beneficiaries through their State governments. 
• Further, states were subsidizing another 51 million people, but their entitlements were less than those of NFSA beneficiaries.

Conclusion:

• Robust procurement trends and a comfortable food stocks position are what make an expansion affordable to address the hardships of people who are deprived of the food security net that the PDS provides.