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India’s foodgrain public distribution system (PDS) has helped reduce undernutrition in poor children under 5 yrs, a study of 2015-16 National Family Health Survey data by the International Institute for Population Studies @IIPSMumbai says. Follow thread for insights:
The study divided the population into 4 categories: the real poor who are economically poor & have a ration card (15%), the excluded poor who do not have a ration card (16%), the non-poor who have a ration card (23%) & the non-poor who do not have a ration card (46%)
Children from excluded poor households were 43% more likely to be stunted, compared to children from non-poor households. 41% in real poor households and 15% in the privileged non-poor household were likely to be stunted compared to non-poor households
Compared to non-poor households, there was a 37% higher likelihood of children from excluded poor households being underweight, compared to 46% real poor households and 15% of the privileged non-poor households
Overall, about ½ of the children from the real poor and the excluded poor categories were stunted. 2/5th of the privileged non-poor and less than 1/3rd of the non-poor households were stunted too, the study found
Overall, National Family Health Survey 2015-16 data show that 38% (61 million) of India’s children under 5 yrs were stunted and 34% (47 million) were underweight
There are state-level variations in how PDS impacted nutrition. The study says that stunting was higher in real poor households in 13 states of India while it was higher in excluded poor households in 16 states
“Undernutrition among children from poor households excluded from PDS is highest, and it warrants inclusion in PDS. Improving the quality of food grains and widening the food basket in PDS is recommended for reduction in level of malnutrition in India,” the study recommends
The PDS system excludes more than 100 million people because the central govt uses population figures from the 2011 census, say academics @JeanDreze, Reetika Khera & Meghana Mungikar, we reported in April 2020: https://www.indiaspend.com/more-than-100mn-excluded-from-pds-as-govt-uses-outdated-census-2011-data/
Ration cards, needed to access subsidised foodgrains in the PDS, are valid only at the place of residence. The PDS potentially excludes at least 54.26 million inter-state migrants who move for work or other reasons, we reported in Jan 2020: https://www.indiaspend.com/one-nation-one-ration-card-three-challenges-the-centre-must-overcome/
The govt’s One Rank One Ration Card aims to change this and make ration cards portable under the National Food Security Act, allowing for their use at any Fair Price Shop across the country
But this programme will not be successful without overhauling the PDS grain storage and distribution infrastructure, updating data systems and improving inter-state coordination in the existing PDS, we reported in January 2020: https://www.indiaspend.com/one-nation-one-ration-card-three-challenges-the-centre-must-overcome/
The programme is a leap towards centralising the PDS, which is not a healthy trend because state governments are more accountable to the people: @JeanDreze, a development economist, told IndiaSpend in June 2020 https://www.indiaspend.com/reopening-public-services-is-as-important-as-reopening-the-economy/
Fewer educated mothers have stunted children, SC households are more likely to have underweight/stunted children due to lower edn access/income & urban children are less likely to be stunted, the study also finds
Here is a link to the complete study: https://bmcnutr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40795-020-00369-0
