Public Deprived System

People demand food security at protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar

Kerosene consumption through PDS registers sharp increase

Purchase of kerosene through the public distribution system (PDS) has registered a sharp increase in a period of five years, from 2004-05 to 2009-10, according to the report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). Data shows that purchase of rice, wheat/flour, and sugar from PDS outlets is also rising but it is the consumption of kerosene that has increased the most in both rural and urban India. Dependence on milk from cattle reared at home and home-grown cereals like rice, wheat and pulses are, meanwhile, on the decline, the data shows.

Parliament committee proposes no increase in foodgrain entitlement in Food Security Bill

The much awaited report of the parliamentary standing committee on the National Food Security Bill was submitted to the Lok Sabha speaker on January 17. This paves the way for the government to push for its enactment in the upcoming budget session in February.

Left demands right to food for every Indian

PM should head food security bill: M S Swaminathan

Agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has called for setting up a body headed by the prime minister for effective execution of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) once it is enacted. All chief ministers should be members of this board, he added.

Hunger stalks government schools in West Bengal

Eighty-seven per cent school children in four districts of West Bengal are undernourished right at the entry level. The shocking numbers are from the yet unpublished report of Project Dipankar, a child tracking system initiated by the department of school education in the state. The project tracks the educational performance of standard I students and their nutritional status.

PDS Survey 2011 Selected Findings

A detailed survey of the PDS was conducted in nine Indian states in May-June 2011 by student volunteers. Two important findings: 1. Evidence of a major revival of the PDS across the country (even in states like Odisha and Uttar Pradesh). Main exception: Bihar. 2. Where PDS works, people much prefer food to cash transfers.

The PDS learning curve

“Kemathi accho” translates to “ how are you” in Odiya, said one of the local volunteers to me as our train made its way from Raipur in Chhattisgarh to Odisha through dried up riverbeds and parched lands. A summer survey to study the ground realities of the Public Distribution System (PDS), initiated by IIT Delhi and coordinated by development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera, was being conducted in nine states of the country. I was part of the survey (see: Selected Findings) and was deputed to Odisha, a place not to my liking, worsened further by my alienation from the language. Along with me were people working on food security issues in India, who firmly believed that India’s PDS was essential for the survival of many of its citizens.

Prime Minister’s Logic

Manmohan Singh reveals his biases by comparing the 2G spectrum scandal to the ‘loss’ incurred on the food subsidy