{"id":35273,"date":"2025-01-11T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=35273"},"modified":"2025-01-13T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T06:38:14","slug":"right-to-food-and-struggle-with-pds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-01-2025\/right-to-food-and-struggle-with-pds","title":{"rendered":"Right to Food and the Struggle with the PDS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Governance, GS3\/ Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Right to Food in India faces challenges due to inefficiencies in the Public Distribution System (PDS), hindering equitable access to essential food grains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Status of Food Security in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>India<\/strong> has been ranked <strong>105th out of 127 countries <\/strong>in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2024, placing it in the \u201c<strong>serious<\/strong>\u201d category for hunger levels.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023<\/strong> report highlights that approximately 224 million people in India experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2021-2022.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Recognition of the Right to food<\/strong><br>&#8211; The right to food is recognized in the <strong>Universal Declaration on Human Rights <\/strong>and the <strong>International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>In India,<\/strong> the right to food was recognised as a fundamental right <strong>Article 21<\/strong> of the Constitution in the case, <strong>People\u2019s Union of Civil Liberties vs Union of India.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is a PDS System?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Public Distribution System (PDS)<\/strong> is a food security system in India that distributes food and other items to the poor at subsidized prices.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The PDS is a joint responsibility of the central and state governments.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The central government<\/strong>, through the <strong>Food Corporation of India (FCI),<\/strong> procures, stores, transports, and allocates food grains to the states.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>State governments<\/strong> manage the system at the ground level, including allocating food within the state, identifying eligible families, and issuing ration cards.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges with the PDS System<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Diversion of Food Grains: <\/strong>A significant portion of food grains is leaked during transportation or diverted to the black market.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Exclusion Due to Biometric Verification: <\/strong>Many individuals lose access to monthly rations as their names are removed from PDS rolls after biometric mismatches during Aadhaar-based verification.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Corruption at Fair Price Shops (FPS), <\/strong>such as under-weighing food grains, selling poor-quality goods, or charging higher prices, undermines the system&#8217;s effectiveness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Inadequate warehousing facilities<\/strong> lead to spoilage and wastage of food grains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reforms and Modernization Efforts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>National Food Security Act, 2013: <\/strong>Enacted to provide legal entitlement to subsidized food grains to two-thirds of India&#8217;s population.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ensures the coverage of 75% of rural and 50% of urban population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Targeted Public Distribution System (Control) Order of 2015<\/strong> was issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It established responsibilities for the Centre and States, and set up a grievance redressal mechanism.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Digital Ration Cards: <\/strong>The introduction of digital ration cards and Aadhaar-based biometric authentication aims to eliminate fake and duplicate ration cards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT):<\/strong> In some regions, DBT has been implemented, where money is transferred directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries instead of providing food grains.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>End-to-End Computerization:<\/strong> The PDS system is being computerized to improve transparency, minimize leakages, and make distribution more efficient.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Food Safety and Quality Monitoring:<\/strong> Various measures have been taken to improve the quality control of food grains provided under the PDS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Infrastructure Expansion:<\/strong> Strengthen storage and transportation facilities to support the growing scale of operations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Technological Integration:<\/strong> Leverage artificial intelligence and blockchain for real-time tracking and reducing inefficiencies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Implement social audits and public grievance redressal mechanisms <\/strong>to hold PDS stakeholders accountable and address issues like corruption and leakages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/the-right-to-food-and-the-struggle-with-the-pds\/article69077387.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Right to Food in India faces challenges due to inefficiencies in the Public Distribution System (PDS), hindering equitable access to essential food grains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35314,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35273\/revisions\/35314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}