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PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana
Context: Recent data from Delhi has reignited the debate on the efficacy and targeting of India’s flagship food security scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
Why are such programmes essential for social justice and ensuring food security?
- Right to Food: They operationalise the constitutional ideal of the right to life (Article 21) by ensuring access to adequate food, a basic human necessity.
- Social Safety Net: They act as a cushion for the most vulnerable sections of society—the poor, landless, women, children, and the elderly—against shocks like unemployment, health crises, and food price inflation.
- Poverty Alleviation: By reducing the household expenditure on food, these schemes free up limited financial resources for other essential needs like health and education, thereby breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
- Nutritional Support: They help in combating malnutrition and hunger, which are critical barriers to human capital development and economic productivity.
- Gender Empowerment: Since ration cards are often issued in the name of the eldest woman in the household, it enhances her decision-making power within the family regarding food security.
What are the major challenges associated with the food grains disbursement programme in India?
- Inclusion and Exclusion Errors: As highlighted by the data, a significant number of ineligible beneficiaries (e.g., car owners, income tax payers) are wrongly included, diverting resources from the intended needy.
- Political Economy Challenges: Removing ineligible beneficiaries is politically sensitive. Governments, both at the centre and states, are often reluctant to spend political capital on enforcing eligibility rules for fear of a voter backlash.
- Issues with Identification: The reliance on outdated Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data and the inflexibility of the current list make it hard to account for changes in a household’s economic status over time.
- Leakage and Corruption: Leakage in the Public Distribution System (PDS) through diversion of grains, ghost beneficiaries, and corruption by intermediaries remains a persistent problem, though technology has reduced it significantly.
- Financial Burden: The scheme imposes a massive fiscal burden (estimated at ₹2.36 trillion annually). The savings from weeding out ineligible beneficiaries (approx. ₹14,000 crore) are relatively small, reducing the incentive for rigorous enforcement.
- Changing Economic Landscape: Recent tax reforms (increasing the tax rebate limit to ₹12 lakh) could automatically make millions of previous tax-payers eligible again, complicating the weeding-out process.
What measures can be taken to address the loopholes?
- Dynamic and Automated Verification: Integrate the ration card database in real-time with other government databases (Income Tax, Vahan for vehicles, company registries).
- Focus on AAY Category: Given the reduction in multi-dimensional poverty (estimated at 210 million), the scheme could be rationally restricted to the AAY category (81 million beneficiaries), which represents the most vulnerable.
- Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): Instead of physical grain distribution, a cash transfer equivalent to the cost of the foodgrain entitlement can be made directly to the beneficiary’s bank account.
- Gradual Reduction in Entitlement: For non-AAY (PHH) beneficiaries, the entitlement quantity could be gradually reduced over the scheme’s tenure, transitioning them away from total dependence on subsidised grain.
- Sunset Clause with Clear Targeting: Future extensions of the scheme should be based on a clear, time-bound sunset clause and a robust, contemporary targeting mechanism to avoid perpetuating an indefinite and untargeted subsidy.
- Divert Savings to Capital Expenditure: The significant financial savings from better targeting should be strategically diverted to strengthen social infrastructure like health, education, and skill development, which offer long-term solutions to poverty.
