Dogo Rangsang Research Journal UGC Care Group I Journal

ISSN : 2347-7180 Vol-10 Issue-07 No. 20 July 2020

India’s Initiative: One Nation One Ration

S. Sunitha1 & Dr S. Sudha2

Abstract:

One Nation One Ration is an ambitious initiative launched by Food Ministry – Government
of India for inter-state Ration Card Portability. This Scheme provides relief to beneficiaries
permitting them and their family members to avail food grains from any Ration Shop in the
country. This Scheme is the Latest Scheme launched by Government during the COVID19
Pandemic. This Paper is a study to understand the working, progress and implementation of
the scheme along with its Practical Challenges. This Paper also provides an analytical study
on the important Segments of the Scheme in progress.

KEYWORD: ONE NATION ONE RATION CARD, INDIA , HUNGER,

DIGITALIZATION, MIGRANT WORKERS, POOR

1
Research Scholar
Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS)
Chennai, India
Sunitha1986@rediffmail.com
9600197419
2
Assistant Professor, Research Guide
Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS)
Chennai, India
ssudha.phd@gmail.com
9976759347

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 Dogo Rangsang Research Journal UGC Care Group I Journal
ISSN : 2347-7180 Vol-10 Issue-07 No. 20 July 2020
I. INTRODUCTION

Today, the Republic of India is second most populous in the world; India is the largest
democracy in the world and the world’s third-biggest economy in Purchasing Power Parity.
But Post Independence, India had some major everyday issues to face which continued to
pose hurdles in the progress of the nation. One such major challenge was Hunger. The
Government of India was forced to take some action, Though India had a rationing system
which was introduced by the British during the World War II, It was not completely helpful.
Later in 1947, The Government of India established a food security system, to distribute
essential goods and services to Poor people for their survival. The Key commodities
circulated consist of staple food grains & Pulses, such as wheat, rice, sugar, dal and essential
fuels like kerosene, through a network of fair price shops. These Fair price shops were
established across various villages, cities and states to reach maximum household. This Fair
price shops were called Ration Shop and were maintained and monitored by Food
Corporation of India. Under this facility the Ration Card is generated for Households and
issued as a Government document, which make them eligible to purchase essential foods at a
substantial rate. The National Food Security Act, 2013 was passed to provide subsidized food
grains to approximately two thirds of India's 1.2 billion people.[1]. There are mainly two
types of ration cards issued based on the Households eligibility, they are

 Priority Ration Card –It ensures household is entitled to 5 kilograms of food grain per
member per month.
 Antyodaya (AAY) - This is issued only to “poorest of poor" households, Each AAY
household is entitled to 35 kilograms of food grain per month.

A. The major Challenges faced in Ration card system are

Corruption – Millions of Ration shop workers accept bribes to release the goods in black
market to sell in private markets. In this run, many poor card holders are sent empty hands to
home.

Illegal smuggling of goods – Many cases are reported were Ration shop workers divert the
subsidized food supply and petroleum to the black market.

Illegal Issuance of Ration cards – There are millions of ration cards which are fraudulent,
Around 30 Lakhs of fake ration cards were reported in 2013 on the other hand millions of
eligible poor families have no ration card [2].

The main reason for these challenges is that the work in the ration shop involves manual
work and there are no specific high-tech technologies to automate the job or monitor the job.

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 Dogo Rangsang Research Journal UGC Care Group I Journal
ISSN : 2347-7180 Vol-10 Issue-07 No. 20 July 2020
B. Digitalization of Ration Card System: One Nation One Ration

To bring efficiency and transparency in the public distribution supply, the Government of
India created a roadmap to computerize the ration shops and digitalize the database of all
beneficiaries and commodities. The process was put in place to curb leakage and misuse of
Supplies, The main Digitalization enabled key initiates are Aadhaar- enabled beneficiary,
Aadhaar-enabled Direct Benefit Transfer, Aadhaar-enabled eligibility check, and e-Ration
Card Services.

The entire process of Public distribution system and its digitalization is put in place to
guarantee no one remains hungry in India; however there are Millions of migrant workers and
Migrant population; who move within state or other states to earn , These migrants are left
behind, as ration cards are all linked to their Hometown or place where they lived earlier. In
India around 14 Crore Migrants as per to 2011 Census, faces a big challenge to get ration
card each time they change their location.

On May 2020, Finance Minister of India , Nirmala Sitharaman , Launched the scheme One
Nation One Ration Card Scheme, as a relief to beneficiaries permitting them to avail food
grains from any Ration Shop in the country. However the Pilot run began in 2019 in few
states like Andhra Pradesh-Telangana and Gujarat-Maharashtra, to check the feasibility and
practical difficulties. This new Initiate of Government of India “One Nation One Ration card”
is solution to challenges faced by not only migrant workers but also curbs corruption and
allows portability of food security benefits. According to the scheme, a family will be able to
avail 1 Kg Rice or 1 Kg Wheat in addition to 1 Kg Bengal grams (Pulse). Around 67 per cent
of the ration cardholders will get covered by August 2020, as on July 2020, Already 20 states
have come on board to implement inter-state ration card Portability. This means a ration card
holder from Bihar can not only buy his stock from any of the ration shops in his state but also
from Delhi. All remaining States and Union territories are directed to be integrated before
March 2021. This is made possible by a single digital card linked to the beneficiary’s
Aadhaar card and by enabling E-POS for Biometric Authentications at the Ration shops.
Food ministry data shows nearly 82% of Ration Shops have ePoS devices installed and
functioning. The Scheme will give a big relief for migrant labourers, Urban Poor and the
daily wagers. The Food Ministry has already initiated a toll-free helpline number ‘14445’ for
One Nation, One Ration Card scheme especially due to COVID19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE

To study the Economic Participation and impact of One Nation One ration scheme

METHODOLOGY

This study is conducted on secondary data collected from Indian government’s Ministry of
Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Portal for Integrated Management of
Public Distribution System (IM-PDS).

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 Dogo Rangsang Research Journal UGC Care Group I Journal
ISSN : 2347-7180 Vol-10 Issue-07 No. 20 July 2020
In this study we have collected the data from the launch of the scheme May 2020 till 21 July
2020 and compared the growth and trend of the scheme. Table1 Show the Inter-state ration
card usage date for May20, June20 and July20 respectively.

Table 1: One Nation One Ration – Overall Details

Items/ Months May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20

States 17 14 20
Ration Card 327 ↑490 1178 [59%] ↑
Beneficiary 3077 ↑3932 11077 [61% ] ↑
Total Transaction 378 ↑510 1503[62%] ↑
AAY Transaction 35 ↑36 102[58] ↑
PHH Transactions 343 ↑474 1401[63%] ↑
Wheat Distribution (KG) 1650.4 ↑4533.5 10372[62%] ↑
Rice Distribution (KG) 4714 ↑5973 14469[57%] ↑
Source: Tabulated from Government Portal -IMPDS on 21/07/20

Interpretations – Currently This scheme is available in 20 States and UTs , And they are
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana,
Kerala, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman &
Diu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. As per the Table1,
The usage of one nation one ration card usage among the card holder has increased
drastically from 327 in May 20 to 1178 in July 20; direct 59% increase is observed. Similar
increase in usage between states is noticed among all the important items under calculation.
All Fields under calculation has notice more than 50% increase.

Fig 1 : Graphical Projection of Table 1

Source: Author’s Creation

The Fig 1 is a graphical representation of usage of Scheme over the past three months. The
trend shows that there is a direct increase in usage of the scheme.

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 Dogo Rangsang Research Journal UGC Care Group I Journal
ISSN : 2347-7180 Vol-10 Issue-07 No. 20 July 2020
Conclusion

One Nation One Ration Scheme, an ambitious plan of Government of India to buy subsidised
food grains from ration shops in any part of the country; certainly is successful in achieving
its aim as it’s a big relief for migrant labourers and urban poor. The main reason for it success
is its planned and phased implementation. The pilot studies and sufficient time to digitalize
the Fair Price – Ration shops is given due importance. The linking of Aadhar card now acts
as a silver lining by baking up all the digitalisation from Direct Beneficiary Transfers to
Biometric Evaluations. This study concludes that this scheme is a direct measure to boast the
economy of India by curbing the social evils like Corruption, Black Marketing , and mainly
Poverty.

Some Key Suggestion:

 In rural area’s the major issue is Like Aadhar card linking – Biometric authentication
– One Nation One Ration – For this the Ration Shop must have facility to conduct
KYC and Biometric updation for card holders and they should be educated to have
this completed before going to other states for work.
 Untracked seasonal workers –Proper registration helpline should be created for
Migrant workers to report their place or details either online or offline. This will help
the states to maintain the Supplies demanded.
 Few States like Tamil Nadu is still not ready to accept the scheme due to political
pressure. Their question remains that will bear the cost of Subsidised ration to
seasonal migrants - the states or Central. The Food Ministry must circulate a clear
direction on funds on their portal for general public to know and raise concerns.

Reference:

 Manu Aiyappa (2013). “30 Lakhs bogus ration cards could derail scheme”.
Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2 July 2013.
 Ministry of Food, Government of India Portal. http://www.impds.nic.in
 Aiyappa, Vikash. “20 States Come on Board for One Nation One Ration Card”.
Https://Www.oneindia.com, 20 July 2020, www.oneindia.com/india/20-states-come-
on-board-for-one-nation-one-ration-card-3122224.html.
 Sharma, Harikishan. “Explained: What Is the 'One Nation, One Ration Card'
System?”The Indian Express, 16 May 2020, indianexpress.com/article/explained/one-
nation-one-ration-card-system-explained-6410179/.

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