An outstanding example of determined political will, compassionate leadership and smart thinking, the BJP-ruled State offers crucial lessons on how to streamline the system and ensure success of social welfare schemes
There is widespread cynicism that most social welfare schemes are doomed to fail given the culture of chronic corruption and bad governance that defines the present political scene in India. There is no point in increasing spending on the social sector because it will only lead to wastage of public resources. But the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act shows us how to overcome these problems. It is in many ways a better version of the National Food Security Bill passed by the lok Sabha earlier this week. Antyodaya and very poor households receive 35kg of grain at one or two rupees per kg. learning lessons from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, CFSA also assures two kg of pulses at five-10 rupees per kg.
It is estimated that there is a 40 per cent leakage in the public distribution system nationally and many States have failed to plug the leak. Chhattisgarh, however, has been able to contain the loss substantially. First, it removed privately-run fair price shops and made women’s self-help groups, panchayats and cooperative societies responsible for managing ration shops.
Next, it focussed on ensuring that those running the shops had a proper income. So, the Government increased their commission four-fold. Shops were opened in all the panchayats, given a month’s ration free of cost and their managers provided an interest-free loan of up to Rs 70,000.
A system has been set up to deliver the ration directly from the warehouse to the shops. Once the goods reach the shop, the cardholders themselves come to take them, and it becomes difficult to pilfer at this stage. The process has been computerised to stop any wrongdoing on the way. To monitor PDS at the panchayat level, watchdog committees of local community leaders have been set up. When the goods leave the godown, village members are informed through SMS. They check the goods and make a panchnama.
Through these ways, the leakage has been reduced substantially from about 40 per cent to four per cent, according to Chief Minister Raman Singh. According to non-governmental estimates, diversion of PDS grain in Chhattisgarh had been reduced to about 10 per cent by 2009-2010. In the Centre’s scheme, rice is given at three rupees per kg and this scheme covers only 67 per cent of the population. Chhattisgarh is covering 90 per cent of the population (besides below families, homeless persons, widows, leprosy patients, labourers, small and marginal farmers as well as hostel residents) and giving rice at two rupees per kg.
In Tamil Nadu, 60 per cent of the ‘poverty gap’ has been removed due to effective delivery of subsidised food through PDS, while in Chhattisgarh the ‘poverty gap’ reduced is 40 per cent compared to only 20 per cent at the national level. Reportedly, the greatest poverty reduction in the country has happened in States where the PDS and the rural employment guarantee programme have been working well.
Chhattisgarh is an outstanding example of how determined political will, a compassionate leadership and smart thinking can remove bottle necks and streamline the system. People’s participation in the management and monitoring of systems, not privatisation, is crucial. Expanding the definition of the poor is another key aspect, advocated by the Multidimensional Poverty Index that is used in UN human development reports.
The Chhattisgarh model of food security is worth emulating nationwide with local modification. Effective delivery of cheap and wholesome nutritious food to the needy is essential not only because it helps fight hunger and malnutrition but also because, along with education, it is the best social investment that can be made so as to have a productive labour force that can propel national development.