Programmes to Protect the Hungry: Lessons from India

Madhura Swaminathan

Working Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: Evidence on calorie intake and nutritional outcomes establishes that chronic hunger and food insecurity persist today on a mass scale in India. The liberalization-induced policy of narrow targeting of the Public Distribution System (PDS), a programme of food security that provides a minimum quantity of cereals at subsidized prices, has resulted in worsening food insecurity. Recent evidence from the 61st round of the National Sample Survey in 2004-2005 establishes that targeting has led to high rates of exclusion of needy households from the system and clear deterioration of coverage in States like Kerala where the universal PDS was most effective.

Keywords: food security; targeting errors; India; liberalization; public distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I38 O53 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cwa and nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:wpaper:70

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