Survey: Serious flaws in new food subsidy scheme in Jharkhand

RANCHI: Jharkhand government's Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, introduced last year for ration distribution, has serious flaws, an audit by Right To Food (RTF) Campaign has revealed.
After the pilot DBT scheme was introduced in October 2017 at Nagri block in Ranchi district, residents could no longer purchase rice at Re 1 per kg from ration shops and instead had to wait for transfers to their bank accounts. Then they had to withdraw the amount to buy rice at Rs 32 per kg.

The RTF study, which surveyed 244 beneficiary families in 13 randomly selected villages in Nagri, has found that many of them have not been able to avail the subsidised grain because of tedious process and the costs involved in withdrawing the amount deposited in their bank accounts.

The study found that on an average each family has 3.4 bank accounts and 95% of them have not been informed about the account linked to the food subsidy scheme. As a result, people have had to shuttle between various banks, covering an average distance of 4.3km.

Further, for the last four months, the families have got ration only for two months and had to spend 15 hours completing formalities to collect it. Over 97% of the respondents said they want the government to abandon the scheme and revert to the earlier system of food distribution.

Among those facing the project's brunt is Daniel Tirkey of Singhpur village, who has got a notice saying his ration card will be cancelled if he does not procure the ration allotted to him. Then there is Jamuna Tirkey, who has been asked to collect his quota of ration within a couple of days, failing which his allotment would lapse. Fulti Kachchap, 85, spends Rs 300 on travelling to the bank to get a subsidy of Rs 32 per kg of rice. Fulo Mundain of Kenke village has two bank accounts and for 15 days she did the rounds of both branches to figure out which one is linked the scheme. She hasn't received any money in the last two months.

There are also cases where people have not been able to procure ration even though the money has been transferred to their account. Basi Orain's husband works in Punjab and the food subsidy is credited to his account. Despite her concerted effort, her account has not been linked for the subsidy and she is unable to access the money. Jean Dreze, noted developmental economist and architect of the survey, said, "This is yet another case where the poor are being used as guinea pigs for experimenting with unreliable technologies. For many beneficiaries, the so-called food subsidy has become a burden. Yet they are cooperating with the DBT system as they fear that their ration card could be cancelled."

The state government has said it plans to extend the scheme to other blocks and districts, depending on the pilot project's success. Dr Amitabh Kaushal, state food and public distribution secretary, said, "We are going to conduct a concurrent evaluation. We will convene the meeting under the chairmanship of the state minister for food and public distribution services Saryu Rai on Feb 27."