The Covid-19 lockdown has exposed the human and economic costs of many delayed reforms. While the Centre had announced a full roll-out of ration card portability from June 1, 2020—this has been talked about for over half a decade now—had it been rolled out earlier, perhaps migrant workers stranded in metros would have been able to access their entitlements.
There are enough reports of many not getting two, or even one meal, regularly. With wage-flow stoppered, and unable to get ration in the cities, most migrant workers have had to rely on food distribution by government and NGOs. But, these have largely proved inadequate. Hunger, among other factors, has stoked the migrants’ demand to be allowed to go home, notwithstanding Covid-19 risks.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to see if temporarily shifting to a ‘one nation, one ration card’ system is possible.
As per a February release from the consumer affairs, food and public distribution ministry, nearly 90% of the 23.4 crore ration cards in the country have been Aadhaar-seeded. And, as per the ministry’s reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, ePoS machines have been installed in 4.76 lakh of 5.39 lakh fair price shops (FPS), as part of end-to-end computerisation of FPSs. The ePoS not only allows Aadhaar-based biometric authentication but also keeps a record of each PDS transaction by tagging it to the beneficiary’s ration card number. Coupled with smart ration cards that some states are using, it is possible to track how much grain or other PDS items a ration-card-holder or their listed, Aadhaar-seeded household members have lifted from an FPS.
A linked weighing machine will help prevent weighing frauds, since the ePoS used by some states won’t generate a printed bill until the corresponding weight of grains is not placed on the weighing scale. While the Covid-19 outbreak in the country is likely to have stalled the roll-out of ePoS, digitised ration cards, and the Aadhaar seeding exercise, the required digital infrastructure to roll out ration card portability is already largely in place—mostly the northeastern states are yet to have full Aadhaar seeding and computerisation of FPSs.
However, rolling out ration card portability would largely be the states’ domain since both PDS, and identification of beneficiaries are the state governments’ mandate. As per a March 20 reply by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan in Rajya Sabha, only 12 states have so far worked on developing intra- and inter-state portability. Covid-19 gives the rest the impetus to move on portability.
Yet, while ration card portability is being considered, it would perhaps be better, given the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile triad, to shift away from physical rations through PDS to direct benefits transfer, which the Shanta Kumar committee had recommended in 2015, saying that this could save the government Rs 30,000 crore annually. This would help wind up the inefficient FCI system, as well as the MSP scheme that has direct effects on the environment.