PANCHITA SAIKIA (team co-coordinator)

DEEPJYOTI KALITA, SAURABH SARMA, ARIJITA DUTTA, ANUBHA BARUAH

DON BOSCO COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, GUWAHATI

TEAM DETAILS

THEME: PLUGGING THE LEAKS: IMPROVING

REACH AND EFFICIENCY OF PDS

The food grain stock s available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) stand at an all time high of 62 million tonnes. Still there are millions of people who die out of hunger every year..

Tormenting conditions of Indian food security- Deserving Poor are not benefitted by the PDS system in India: Poor are only getting 10 % of intended benefit offered by PDS system.

Non poor people are getting more benefit than the poor ones: 19% of subsidy goes to non poor. 43% goes to the illegal diversion. 28% goes to the administrative expense.

Conclusion of the Fair Price Shops: 23 % of all Fair Price Shops(FPS) couldn’t survive due to the leakage and diversion .

It is evident from the above statistical data that 210.8 million tonnes food grain production was done during year 2003-2004, still India was at an alarming rate of 20.0- 29.9 at the Global Hunger Index. Even today, the scenario has not much changed as “57% of the PDS food grain does not reach the intended people” (UIDAI).

Our proposed solution for Plugging the leaks of PDS in India

Causes of the problem Already proposed solutions Our proposed solution/initiative

Inclusion Error: This is caused due to inclusion of people who are not eligible into BPL (Below poverty line) and AAY (Antodoya Anna Yojna) category. Ghost Cards: Bogus ration cards in the name of fictitious owners, is a serious problem causing significant leakages as it does not reach the intended beneficiaries. This is estimated to be around 16.7% Shadow Ownership: This is caused due to migrant families in search of work not able to avail their quota or poor families due to paucity of funds keep the ration cards with FPS owners or others to avail credit or get small portions of cash. due to non viability of FPS’s rations go to black market & they declare unavailability of the stock in the store

Smart card: A solution for public distribution system problem. Vigilance squad should be strengthened to detect corruption. •Personnel-in-charge of the department should be chosen locally. •Margin of profit should be increased for honest business, in which case the market system is more apt anyway. •F.C.I. and other prominent agencies should provide quality food grains for distribution. •Frequent checks & raids should be conducted to eliminate bogus and duplicate cards, which is again an added expenditure and not fool proof.

Reason 4 Selecting the cause: The selected cause: The non viability of FPS, which leading to main diversion & leakage of PDS. Reason: Since the other reasons like ghost card, shadow ownership etc. are more of a centralized business, there is not much of a solution that we can provide to abolish it. And since the Benchmark Solutions for eg: ( 1:Take over the shops. 2:Taking legal action against the shop owner 3:Ensuring viability of FPS’s. 4:Integrating it with UIDAI for efficient 5:monitoring through computerization ) provided by the Govt. takes a long duration to be implemented , we have proposed two solution for plugging the leaks of PDS. They are- 1: Training of Total of 3355 volunteers in India and appointing them to the 671 districts of India to track the buying and selling of food-grains( from the Govt. to the poor people). 2: Establishment of the Public Distribution Portal System, for smooth running of the proposed solution.

Monitoring Mechanism through the volunteers appointed and the Newly introduced Portal system for poor people’s welfare.

Indian Government

Central Head Organisation

2684 Co-ordinator Volunteers in random villages under 1 District. (4 Co-ordinator

Volunteers in each District besides the one Chief Volunteer)

671 District Head Organisations with 1 Chief Volunteer in each District

Head Organisation

FPS with vendors keeping records of amount of foodgrains transferred to their shop and amount of food sold to poor according to the price fixed for people of BPL, APL , etc.

The final record prepared by the head person of C.H.O and sent to the Indian

Government for survey.

Vendors have to once in a month visit the Volunteer In-charge of that village to submit the report of food-grains supplied to their shops and the amount of food-grains sold to the people of

BPL, APL, etc.

All the co-ordinator volunteers must submit all the reports to the District Head of the villages.

All the 671 District Organisation/volunteers must submit the data/reports to the One

Central Head Organisation for further survey.

“For every Rs 4 spent by the Govt. ,only Rs 1 reaches the

poor” The success of these 2 proposed solutions will

change the scenario.

Implementing Portal System: the second proposed Solution.

The Government governing the Head Portal System.

The C.H.O controls the main functioning of the Portal System.

Its arteries lies in the 671 Districts governed by the chief volunteers.

Each District provide its villages and its people with the facility of online portal system for registering online complaints against the culprits, for demanding justice,

monitoring the food grains they deserved or requesting help to the head organization i.e C.H.O.

TRAINING CRITERIA C.H.O DISTRICT HEADS CO-ORDINATORS

QUALIFICATION Experienced Government employee with enough knowledge about PDS

system.

Graduate person between the age of 25-35 years with

good personality.

10+2 pass youth (18+) with good communication skill

and active nature.

VENUE OF TRAINING Government colleges, Schools,

Government Institutional buildings

Government offices, etc

TRAINING MODULES (Initially for three months)

Handling of internet services, reports, Portal system- introduced as a

solution to poor people’s welfare.

Monitoring and tracking of food grains transported.

Data analyze, statistical calculation and IT knowledge in the guidance of the CHO. Monitoring and tracking of

food grains transported.

Data Xeroxing, report making on distribution of food,

knowledge about computer, communication in the

guidance of District Heads. Tracking of supply of food-

grains.

SELECTION OF VOLUNTEERS Working skill in the past job. Knowledge and willingness about the whole work.

Communication skill and smartness.

description of key steps involved in implementing the solution.

Cost of computerization to the volunteers:

[2684 X INR 5000] Total: INR 13420000

Co-ordinator Volunteers:

[2684 X (INR 30000 for three months)] Total: INR 80520000

District Head Volunteers: ( at initial stage)

[671 X (INR 50000 for 3 months)] Total: INR 33550000 (for three months)

Computerization for 671 District head and One C.H.O

[(671+1) X INR 40000] Total: INR 26880000

Other expenditure

•Cost of establishing Portal System : INR 5 Lakhs

Total cost: INR: 154870000

Financial resources or total funding required from the Government at each step.

A total amount of INR 15 Crore 48 Lakhs 70 thousand is estimated for the Proposed initiative for Plugging the leaks And improving reach and availibility of Food by the Public Distribution System. Since it is a prosed solution whose success can impact the 1.27 Billion population of India and the poor and almost 50% of the youth population, therefore Govt. must take the initiative of sanctioning the required minimum funds for the betterment of the country.

Proposed source(s) of Funding

Sponsorship from the some groups or organization. The profit made by the whole process-

Government is spending 750 billion per year in PDS and according to the data only about 190 billion is reaching the poor. If the proposed process is able to make a profit of only 5% , i.e. 37.5 billion, this money will be enough to run the proposed process. Also followed by-

• Media support. • Initiative help by NGOs • Government funding.

Scalability of the given solutions: The sustainability of the solution will depend upon the willingness of the volunteers to give their best. It will depend upon the quality of work they provide.

The proposed Plan will effect the 1.27 billion people of India positively:

Volunteer Network: 1 Head Volunteer of the Central Head Organisation. 671 District Head Volunteers. 2684 Co-ordinator Volunteers recruited in random villages of each District. Training and skills imparted to them: Knowledge of keeping computerized records. Skill of Dealing with the Portal System. Knowledge about working plans of Govt. Knowledge about geography of India, as in number of villages, districts etc. Ability of tracking amount of food-grains supplied to FPSs and amount of it sold to poor.

Additional Benefits: By training the volunteers of India, we are indirectly playing major role of increasing future job prospects of the youth, thus diminishing unemployment. We can impart work experience to the volunteers by increasing their future job prospects. Volunteers will obtain a livelihood fom the Govt. in return of their service.

Facing the challenges:

Stakeholders : 1:Local village head’s tie-up with the government personnel, officers in the village. 2:NGOs tie up with the C.H.O and District Heads. 3:District Head’s tie-up with the District Blocks. 4:Awareness campaign with the help of Media. (Media tie-ups with the C.H.O and the Government of India)

Implementation Challenges: 1:Government may not see the viability of sanctioning the required amount for the cause. 2:Volunteers may not be willing to work in villages. Sometimes they might show laid back attitude. 3:If village youths are appointed for the same, they might not be literate enough to meet the requirements for the cause.

Benefits:

1: Proper distribution of food grains. 2: Good value for the expenditure made by the government in PDS. 3: Lessen of corruption in PDS and a relatively fast solution to the problem of poor people. 4: Some of unemployed youth will get employment. 5:Poor people will get to know their own rights.

CITATIONS

• UIDAI- Unique identification authority of India.

• C.H.O- Central Head Organisation.

• AAY- Antodova Anna Yojana

• BPL- Below poverty line

• APL- Above poverty line

REFFERENCE

• Unique identification authority of India.

• Performance evaluation organization. (2005). Performance evaluation of targeted

public distribution system. New Delhi: Planning Commission.

• Public distribution system by TENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN 2002-2007.

• National Food Security Bill BY COMMISSION FOR AGRICULTURAL COSTS

AND PRICES, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture,

Government of India.

• HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION IN INDIA: STATUS, CAUSES AND CURES BY

Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development (AVARD) .