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Abstract:
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In India, Food Security meant supply of food grains and the medium was
Public Distribution System. Public Distribution System (PDS) is a rationing
mechanism that entitles households to specified quantities of selected
commodities at subsidized prices. The Objectives of PDS are maintaining Price
Stability, rationing during times of scarcity, welfare of the poor, and keeping a
check on private trade. Kerala has registered remarkable improvement in
poverty reduction in general over the years among all social sections, including
scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population.
As part of the structural adjustment intended to reduce public expenditure,
PDS has been modified as Revamped PDS (RPDS) during 1992 and later on as
Targeted PDS (TPDS) in 1997, intended to target households on the basis of
income criterion, classifying people as Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above
Poverty Line (APL). TPDS provides 25Kg. of food gra.ins through the Fair Price
Shops per month @ Rs.3/- per Kg. of rice/ wheat to the BPL category and @Rs.8.90
and Rs.6.7O for rice and wheat respectively to the APL category of people.
Since TPDS is intended to target the poor people, the subsidy spent by the
government for the scheme should be beneficial to the poor people and
naturally they should utilize the benefits by purchasing the food grains
allotted under the scheme. Several studies have shown that there is underutilization
of the allotments under TPDS. Therefore, the extent of utilization of
TPDS in food grains, how and why remains as a major hurdle, in improving
the structure and system of PDS.
Livelihood of the tribal population being under threat due to increasing
degradation of the resources, the targeting system ought to be effective among
the tribal population. Therefore, performance of the TPDS in food grains, in
terms of the utilization by the tribal population in Kerala, impact thereof and
the factors, if any, affecting proper utilization were considered as the research
problem in this study.
The study concentrated on the pattern of consumption of food grains by the
tribal people, whether their hunger needs are met by distribution of food grains
through the TPDS, extent to which TPDS in food grains reduce their share of
expenditure on food in the total household expenditure, and the factors
affecting the utilization of the TPDS in food grains by the tribal population.
Going through the literature, it has been noted that only few studies concentrated
on the utilization of TPDS in food grains among the tribal population in Kerala.The Research Design used in this study is descriptive in nature, but
exploratory in some aspects. Idukki, Palakkad and Wayanad have more than
60% of the population of the tribals in the state. Within the three districts
mentioned above, 14 villages with scheduled tribe concentration were selected
for the study. 95 tribal colonies were selected from among the various tribal
settlements. Collection of primary data was made from 1231 households with
in the above tribal colonies.
Analysis of data on the socio-economic factors of the tribal people, pattern of food
consumption, extent of reduction in the share of expenditure on food among
the household expenditure of the tribal people and the impact of TPDS on the
tribal families etc. and testing of hypotheses to find out the
relation/association of each of the six variables, using the data on BPL and
APL categories of households separately have resulted in findings such as six
percent of the tribal families do not have Ration Cards, average per capita
consumption of food grains by the tribal people utilizing TPDS meets 62% of
their minimum requirement, whereas the per capita consumption of food
grains by the tribal people is higher than the national average per capita
consumption, 63% deficiency in food grains may be felt by tribal people in
general, if TPDS is withdrawn, and the deficit for BPL tribal people may be
82%, TPDS facilitates a reduction of 9.71% in the food expenditure among the
total household expenditure of the tribal people in general, share of food to
non-food among BPL category of tribals is 55:45 and 40:60 among the APL,
Variables, viz. household income, number of members in the family and distance
of FPS from tribal settlements etc. have influence on the quantity of rice being
purchased by the tribal people from the Fair Price Shops, and there is influence
of household income and distance of FPS from tribal settlements on the
quantity of rice being purchased by the tribal people from the open market.
Rationing with differential pricing on phased allotments, rectification of errors
in targeting, anomalies in norms and procedures for classifying tribal people
as BPL/APL, exclusive Income Generation for tribal population, paddy
cultivation in the landholdings possessed by the tribal people, special drive for
allotment of Ration Cards to the tribal people, especially those belonging to the
BPL category, Mobile Fair Price Shops in tribal settlements, ensure quality of
the food grains distributed through the TPDS, distribution of wheat flour in
packed condition instead of wheat through the Fair Price Shops are
recommended to address the shortcomings and weaknesses of the TPDS vis-avis
the tribal population in Kerala. |