An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food is likely to consider a Planning Commission proposal to shift grain allocation to the BPL under PDS from household to individual basis. The current PDS issues subsidised wheat and rice to around 6.5 cr BPL families as per the 2004-05 estimates. The plan panel wants this system to change so that food security of the individual family members is ensured under the proposed law.
The plan panel, which had been asked by the EGoM to present an estimate of the beneficiaries of the draft food security bill, has made this suggestion to make the PDS more efficient.
The Planning Commission projections state that considering an average number of 4-5 persons per BPL household, the number of PDS families in 2010 should be counted at around 8 crore, treating figures 2004-05 figures as the base. The projections are based on an assumption that poverty has not come down since 2004-05, said sources in the government. Hence, the need for a right to food law to shield for the poor and the vulnerable sections from hunger, they said. The plan panel has also asked the EGoM if it would like to use these figures for the draft food security bill since these are mere projections at this point. According to sources, the actual BPL data would be available only at the end of the nation-wide BPL census. The plan panel was asked to make estimates of the BPL count for the draft food security bill as no definite set of numbers were available. While a panel headed by former chief of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Suresh Tendulkar estimated that 37.5 per cent of India’s population is poor, the Planning Commission in 2004-05 had said that 28.5 per cent of the country’s population was poor. Against this, a rural development ministry-sponsored committee estimated in 2009 that 50 per cent of Indians were poor.