India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has been the anchor of its food security safety net programs for decades. At present, several features of the PDS limit beneficiary access to entitlements, made evident by the unfolding of the COVID-19 crisis. In this blog, Devesh Roy from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Mamata Pradhan, a Research Collaborator with IFPRI, advocate for reforming the PDS to take account of changing employment patterns. They suggest adaptation to a ration card that permits both portability and divisibility of entitlements, allowing migrant workers and others separated from their families to avail of the PDS to ensure food security. Other reforms are also discussed, such as a shift to DBT, strengthening of inbuilt grievance redressal mechanisms, and provision of information, all of which could also help shift the bargaining power from PDS dealers to the beneficiaries. Kalyani Raghunathan series co-editor  and Research Fellow, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND).

In times of crises, such as the one presented by COVID-19, advocating for universality of safety nets may seem somewhat prosaic. Even the Pope in his Easter Letter proposed that it might be time to introduce a universal basic income (UBI). The Supreme Court of India recently made several cogent arguments about universalization of the Public Distribution System (PDS), though it stopped short of passing an order, deeming it a ‘policy issue’ that only the government can take a call on. At the same time, the Court asked the Centre to consider the feasibility of ‘temporarily’ adopting the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ (ONORC) scheme during the ongoing situation to enable economically weaker sections and migrant workers stranded in different places to access food from any ration shop of their choice across the country.