A Chronological Survey Of The Effectiveness Of Public Distribution System In India: Challenges Ahead

Abstract

In India, the Public Distribution System (PDS) is one of the world's largest food security programs that provides food staples to poor and vulnerable portions of the population. Although it is a prominent part of the poverty and food insecurity reduction strategies of a country with the largest number of malnourished people in the world, there have been many challenges to the PDS: inefficiencies and corruption, as well as challenges in ensuring that ECD bodies are serving the right beneficiaries. While this paper considers the history, evolution, and challenges of the PDS, it also considers the policy reform attempts that have been completed to try to combat these various challenges. In the assessment of the PDS, collected quantitative data, review of the literature, as well as review of government documents from a variety of sources, in order to understand the impact, the PDS has had over time. The assessment revealed that the PDS has expanded in terms of coverage but has continued to encounter challenges with leakages and mismanagement, which reduces PDS effectiveness. In conclusion, it proposed strong rationales for the PDS to be modernized through introducing technological-based forms of support, improving governance, and better transparency in the programme in order to better serve the marginalized communities who need it most. In the future it encourages study to expand the exploration of the role and significance of digitalization for the PDS and to examine global best practices in public distribution systems to help strengthen ECD bodies.