Food Subsidy and Poverty

Food Subsidy and balance between fiscal deficit and poverty alleviation.

 India's food subsidy program is the largest in the world. It has proven as an important tool to meet the hunger problem of a country which rank first w.r.t undernourished population.

 Food subsidy is considered as a fiscal burden on the government. 

The reasons for increasing expenditure are- increase in economical cost of grain which has grown 3 times from 2002 and same time no increase in issue price, high rate of error in inclusion of 41% and exclusion of 37%, increase in the eligible people about 67% of the population under PDS.

 Reforms like DBT, automation of fair price shops, decentralised procurement system, Aadhar seeded ration cards can help to improve the situation.

 Though many people are lifted above the poverty line they continue the use of the subsidy. 

To provide full nutrition diverse foods items should be provided thus will help agriculture diversification away from high water crops. 

The storage facility must be upgraded. The scheme should be reframed and the cover should be limited with proper rational criteria.

Conclusion-

 The PDS infrastructure has helped us a lot in the recent critical health emergency situation. Though a high expenditure food subsidy in unalienable due to more than 50%  of women and children are undernourished.