Exclusion errors in "One Nation One Ration Card Scheme"

To tackle the problem of food security for migrant workers, the government introduced the One Nation One Ration Card scheme (ONORC) in 2020.

Exclusion errors in "One Nation One Ration Card Scheme"

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• The story: To tackle the problem of food security for migrant workers, the government introduced the One Nation One Ration Card scheme (ONORC) in 2020. It allows a beneficiary to access his food entitlements from anywhere in India irrespective of the place where the ration card is registered.
• Status: Thirty-two States and Union territories completed the formalities of the scheme, including linking beneficiaries’ ration cards with their Aadhaar numbers and installing e-Point of Sale (e-POS) machines in each FPS. The full mobility of food subsidy under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 relies on digitisation of the public distribution system (PDS), a network of over 5,00,000 fair-price shops (FPS). The Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS) portal records all purchases made under ONORC.
• Challenges: The digitisation of this PDS process, through Aadhaar-linked ration cards and smart cards, has been pushed in an effort to reduce leakages. However, there has been a rise of exclusion errors in post-Aadhaar seeding. There are many sections of society who still don’t have Aadhar Cards, thereby depriving them of food security. Not only PDS, most of the anti-poverty, rural employment, welfare and food security schemes were historically based on domicile-based access and restricted people to access government social security, welfare and food entitlements at their place of origin. An FPS receives the monthly quota of products strictly in accordance with the number of people assigned to it. The ONORC, when fully operational, would disrupt this practice, as some FPSs may have to cater to more numbers of cards even as others cater to less, owing to migration of people.
• Solutions: If emergencies continue to hamper uptake at ration shops, alternate delivery channels can be considered for delivering food grains to vulnerable groups. Food security should be seen from a broader framework of nutritional security. Therefore, ONORC must allow the portability of Integrated Child Development Services, Mid-Day Meals, immunisation, health care and other facilities. In the longer run, the PDS system may be replaced by a fool-proof food coupon system or direct benefit transfer.A Below Poverty Line family can buy rice, pulses, sugar and oil from any Kirana store at the market price, by either paying fully through the coupon or by cash.

 

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