One Nation, One Ration Card - struggling but on the way

The ONORC scheme was launched with the goal of enabling migrant workers and their family members buy subsidised ration from any fair price shop anywh

One Nation, One Ration Card - struggling but on the way

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• The story: In June 2021, India's Supreme Court directed all states and UTs to implement the One Nation, One Ration Card system rigorously without any excuses. It allows for inter- and intra-state portability, and must be done by July 31, 2021, at the latest.
• The idea: This ONORC scheme was launched with the goal of enabling migrant workers and their family members buy subsidised ration from any fair price shop anywhere in the country under the National Food Security Act, 2013. Today, they are unable to do so.

1. A migrant worker from, say, Aurangabad district of Bihar will be able to access PDS benefits in Chennai, where he or she may have gone in search of work. This migrant can buy foodgrains as per his or her entitlement under the NFSA at the place where he or she is based, members of his or her family can still go to their ration dealer back home.
2. To promote this reform in the existing Public Distribution System (PDS), the government provided incentives to states. The Centre set the implementation of ONORC as a precondition for additional borrowing by states during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. At least 17 states, which implemented the ONORC reform, were allowed to borrow an additional Rs 37,600 crores in 2020-21.

• Functioning of ONORC: It uses the details of beneficiaries’ ration card, Aadhaar number, and electronic Points of Sale (ePoS). The system identifies a beneficiary through biometric authentication on ePoS devices at fair price shops (FPS). Two portals are involved - the Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) (impds.nic.in) and Annavitran (annavitran.nic.in), which host all the relevant data. When a ration card holder goes to a fair price shop, he identifies himself through biometric authentication on ePoS, which is matched real time with details on the Annavitaran portal. Once verified, the dealer hands out the beneficiary’s entitlements. While the Annavitaran portal maintains a record of intra-state transactions — inter-district and intra-district — the IM-PDS portal records the inter-state transactions.
• Scale of ONORC: Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, (NFSA) about 81 crore people are entitled to buy subsidised foodgrains — rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg, and coarse grains at Re 1/kg – from designated fair price shops. As on 28 June 2021, there are about 5.46 lakh fair price shops and 23.63 crore ration card holders across the country. Each NFSA ration card holder is assigned to a fair price shop near the place where his ration card is registered. Full coverage will be possible after 100% Aadhaar seeding of ration cards has been achieved, and all fair price shops are covered by ePoS devices (there are currently 4.74 lakh devices installed across India).
• Coverage today: Till date, 32 states and Union Territories have joined the ONORC, covering about 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries. Four states are yet to join the scheme — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal. About 1.35 crore portability transactions every month are being recorded under ONORC on an average. A total of more than 27.83 Crore portability transactions (including intra-state transactions) have taken place all across these States/UTs since the inception of ONORC in August 2019. 

 

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