Antyodaya scheme: many states yet to identify poor

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New Delhi: The central government’s initiative for providing food security to the ‘poorest of the poor’ is moving slowly, as many states are yet to identify these vulnerable families.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), a central scheme, was launched in December 2000 for one crore ‘poorest of the poor’ families. Initially, it was planned to provide 25 kg foodgrain per family per month, at Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 3 a kg for rice. The quantity per family was raised to 35 kg a month from April 1, 2002, besides including an additional 50 lakh ‘poorest of the poor’ families as beneficiaries. Later, on August 3, 2004, finance minister P Chidambaram, in his Budget speech, announced further expansion of the number of beneficiaries by another 50 lakh families. Thus, till date the total number of families to be identified is two crore.

An internal document of the Union ministry of food and consumer affairs says state governments have been slow in identifying the additional one crore families in the second and third phases. It doesn’t mention the progress in identifying the beneficiaries of stage-1.

The document notes: “Out of 35 states and Union territories, only 14, namely Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir have completed the task of identification and issue of distinctive ration cards to the beneficiaries.” This observation, however, relates to 50 lakh families announced way back in April 1, 2002.

It further states that out of 50 lakh families, 42.595 lakh have been identified by the state governments and Union territory administrations. Not only that, all these 42.595 lakh families are still not eligible to receive subsidised grain under AAY as only 27.891 lakh families have been issued distinctive ration cards, for which the central government is making allocation.

Regarding identification of 50 lakh additional families, as per the April 1, 2004 announcement, the document says “Rajasthan has partially completed the job. The governments of Bihar and Orissa have intimated completion of identification of beneficiaries under this scheme. Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttaranchal have partially completed the identification process.” But only identification will not solve the problem. The beneficiaries need to be issued distinctive ration cards.

The fate of identification of another 50 lakh families, announced on August 3, 2004, is similar. In many states, work is yet to begin.