Universal PDS: Efficiency and Equity Dimensions

Sowmya Dhanaraj and Smit Gade ()
Additional contact information
Smit Gade: Madras School of Economics

Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India

Abstract: India being home to the largest number of poor and malnourished population in the world, the tabling of National Food Security Bill has renewed the public pressure for universalization of PDS in India. In this regard, Tamil Nadu?s model of universal PDS has been cited for its success in providing comprehensive food security. We conducted a survey in Coimbatore-Tiruppur region of Tamil Nadu to assess the merits and demerits of universal system. The survey covering 154 households seeks to understand the utilization of the PDS by the poor and the non-poor households, if there is voluntary exclusion of better-off sections of the population from the system and the reasons behind them. It is found that there is low drop-out of non-poor households from the universal system. This is because around 25 percent of all households who are eligible for any PDS commodity reported selling one of the commodities or feeding them to livestock. Also, the entitlements of the poor to subsidized commodities are reduced in uniform universal system. Based on the survey experience, this study puts forward an analytical framework to analyse the resource use efficiency and redistribution achieved in the food distribution system of India. Based on the theoretical framework and the observations from the survey, we make further recommendations in designing an optimal PDS model.

Keywords: Universal PDS; resource use efficiency; redistribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2016-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.mse.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Working-Paper-148.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mad:wpaper:2016-148

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Geetha G ().