Official government statistics indicate that there has been a turnaround in India’s Public Distribution System (PDS). The share of households consuming PDS rice has nearly doubled over seven years and those consuming PDS wheat has more than tripled over the same period.
The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 558th report, released this week, estimates the household consumption of various goods and services in 2011-12, based on a representative national sample of over 1 lakh households.
The report finds that while overall consumption of cereals like rice and wheat has been falling over time, the per capita consumption of PDS rice and wheat is rising steadily, as is the number of households who report accessing the PDS. As a result, the share of the PDS rice and wheat in the total cereals consumed in India has risen considerably.
Rural Indians now consume just under 6 kg of rice per month and 4.3 kg of wheat per capita. Of the total rice bought in rural India, 30 per cent now comes from PDS shops as does 17 per cent of the wheat. The consumption of cereals, whether from the PDS or from other sources, is lower in urban areas. Even so, 20 per cent of rice and 10 per cent of wheat consumed in urban areas comes from the PDS, a big rise since 2004-5.
“The PDS was in terrible shape in the early 2000s,” a former Secretary in the Food Ministry admitted. “A combination of high agricultural productivity and reforms in the PDS system has made this current situation possible,” he said.
Food rights activists have been pointing to this revival in the PDS for the last six months. “The central government has been passing on its huge stocks to state governments, most of it through the APL [Above Poverty Line] quota, and since market prices of cereals have shot up, States are quite happy to buy it,” economist Reetika Khera said. “Some States like those in Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have been using their increased allocation to expand access to subsidised grain. In these States, reforms like universalisation, computerisation and better monitoring have ensured that the BPL households are getting their entitlements,” Ms. Khera said.
What has not however declined significantly is the extent of diversion in the scheme, especially in the APL quota, Ms. Khera said. She said 40 per cent of the grain is still unaccounted for.
Among the States, Gujarat has the lowest per capita consumption of rice and wheat, according to the NSSO. It also had the highest levels of diversion of PDS grain by Ms. Khera’s calculations at 75 per cent in 2011-12.
