What is One Nation One Ration Card?

One Nation One ration card (ONORC) will help in providing grains, rice and wheat flour at subsidised rates for the
economically weaker section of the nation. Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement of the 'One Nation
One Ration Card'(ONORC) scheme for the poor in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. With this conversion of a
regular ration card to the One Ration Card, all beneficiaries and cardholders can purchase subsidised food from any
Public Distribution Shop all over the country.

The ONORC scheme has been rolled out by the Finance Minister on 16 May during the last phase of the Prime
Minister's Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan which included stimulus funds of Rs.20 lakh crore. This ration card has been
launched in all states and Union Territories in the country and 20 states have already agreed to implement this scheme in
their state.

Union Budget highlights:

Migrants to benefit from One Nation One Ration scheme -
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Union Budget 2021 announced that migrants in India will benefit under
the One Nation One Ration scheme. Sitharaman said that migrants can purchase ration from anywhere in the country by
using their ration card.

Purpose of the One Nation One Ration Card

In the country, around 80 crore beneficiaries are entitled to receive subsidised food and grain under the National Food
Security Act 2013. However, for the 80 crore beneficiaries, only 23 crore ration cards have been issued in all the states
and Union Territories of the country.

Previously, with the ration card, a beneficiary could only purchase subsidised food and grain from the PDS (Public
Distribution System) which was assigned to them in their locality. Due to this, there have been many issues faced by the
migrants who shift to other cities for work. However, by converting their existing ration card to ONORC, he or she can
purchase subsidised food from any FPS shop in any locality and in any city.

The Financial Minister also mentioned that for the citizens who do not own a state or central issued PDS card, they will
be given 1 kilogram of 'chana' and 5 kilograms of grain for the next two months.

Three Indian states join One-Nation, One-Ration Card scheme

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said that three more states — Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram have joined the 'One
Nation-One Ration Card' scheme, taking the number of states and union territories which have joined the scheme to 20.

Paswan said that by August, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur will join the national cluster.

Eligible beneficiaries under the 'One Nation-One Ration Card' initiative would be able to avail their entitled food grains
under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from any Fair Price Shop in the country using the same ration card.

The Food Ministry aims to implement the scheme across the country by March 2021.

Paswan said necessary infrastructure work which includes upgradation of electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) software,
integration with central Integrated Management of PDS (IM-PDS) and Annavitran portals, availability of ration cards in
central repository and testing of national portability transactions has been completed in these three states.

Benefits of the One Nation One Ration Card

ONORC has been in the works since April 2018. The conversion of the regular ration card to the One Nation One Ration
Card is expected for all beneficiaries in all states and Union Territories by 2021.
The major benefit of the One Nation One Ration Card is that the people who are eligible to receive subsidised food grain
can do so from any FPS shop in any city. With many of the people migrating to different cities and the previous inability
to purchase food grain in any other city, the One Ration card can help the livelihood of migrant workers all over the
country.

Some of the other benefits of the ONORC are:

Under the ONORC, all the beneficiaries from one state can get their share of rations in other states where the
ration card was originally issued. Any recipient can use their ration cards at any PDS shop across the country.
ONORC is aimed at providing universal access to PDS food grains for migrant workers.
Apart from this, ONORC will also give the beneficiaries the opportunity to choose their own dealer. With many
cases of misallocation, the beneficiary can switch to another FPS shop instantly, if there is any case of foul play.
This scheme will be beneficial for women and other groups, since social identity and other contextual factors will
provide them with a strong backdrop in accessing PDS.
The ONORC will also help achieve the target set under SDG 2: Ending hunger by 2030. It also aims to address the
poor state of hunger in India, where India has been ranked 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index.

The procedure of portability of ration cards to One Ration Card

According to the Finance Minister, the portability procedure of the ration card to the One Ration card is aimed to be done
on intra-state as well as an inter-state basis. The portability of the ration cards inter-state as well as intra-state will be
done online through various portals assigned for the same.

The Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS) will provide the technology platform for the
portability of inter-state ration cards. This will enable migrant workers to purchase food grains from any FPS across the
country. The Annavitran portal will be the other website which will contain the information and data for the distribution
of food through the E-POS system and devices within the state.

The Annavitran portal will help the families of the migrant workers and migrants themselves to avail the benefits of the
Public Distribution System within their state but outside their district as well. The migrant worker can buy his or her
share of food grain as per their entitlement under the National Food Security Act, the family of the migrant workers can
avail subsidised food grain from their ration dealer in their hometown.

The facility of portability is available in 20 states at the moment, and the number of transactions done is 275 as on 14
May according to the data available in the IMPDS portal. According to reports, the number of transactions for the
portability of the intra-state ration card is much higher.