Skip to main content

Half rural households didn't receive two months' ration despite govt direction: Survey

A fresh round of telephonic survey carried out by a group of activists suggests that while 82% of respondents have ration card, and of these 96% said they do receive grain from the fair price shops, nearly half of them (54%) said they have not received two months’ ration in April despite clear government directions.
As many as 130 respondents were surveyed. They are from rural Chhattisgarh (27), Gujarat (25), Jharkhand (17), Madhya Pradesh (12), Odisha (22) and Uttar Pradesh (27) were interviewed.
A note based on the survey said, the distribution of dal in the public distribution system (PDS) remains a major issue in most states, adding, in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh “biometric authentication is still a must at many ration shops.”
The note regretted, “While the PDS seems reasonably functional and inclusive, one pervasive complaint is that names of some household members are missing in the family’s ration card. This reduces people’s effective entitlements, since rations are distributed on a per-capita basis. The common practice of ‘katauti’ (dealers’ cuts) further reduces people’s effective entitlements.”
The main purpose of the survey was to enquire about two major relief measures announced by the government on March 26: Doubling of public distribution system (PDS) entitlements for those who have ration cards and cash transfer of Rs 500 for three months for female Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY) account holders.
Pointing out that just over one third of the respondents (36%) could go to the bank in April, the survey found that, among those who succeeded in withdrawing cash, a few mentioned queues, repeated visits, and aadhaar-related problems.
Among those who failed to withdraw money, “passbook blocked”, “bank shut”, “saw crowd and returned”, and “account showed zero balance” were the main responses. Only five respondents used Business Correspondents (BCs), Common Service Centres (CSCs) or ATMs.
The note further said, only 23% of respondents reported that some household member had received Rs 500 in a JDY account. The rest received nothing, or did not know whether they had received anything. A whopping 41% of the respondents said they “did not know” that they were the beneficiaries.
The survey said that most of the respondents said someone from the household would take up the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) work if available. But when asked how many days of NREGA work they were willing to do, many said “as much as possible”. 
Among those who did not want NREGA work, the main reasons were that they had a young child, were worried about infection, or feared being beaten for breaking lockdown rules.
The note observed, “Several respondents mentioned that some household member was stranded somewhere as a migrant worker (sometimes the migrant worker himself/ herself answered the phone). Their predicament varied from reasonably secure to very precarious.”
It continued, “Some farmers complained of marketing problems and low prices. As one of them (from Odisha) put it: ‘We are all farmers who are in mess. Who will buy our vegetables? We used to go to Rourkela. Sometimes we are selling vegetables for as low as Rs 5 rupees a kilo for brinjal! It is raining too, along with corona -- we are in complete loss and abject condition’.”
“Some respondents clearly lived in abominable poverty (particularly among those who subsist from casual labour)”, the note said, stating, “One of them is Fuleshwari Patra, a Dalit respondent from Odisha who has no land, no ration card and no schooling.”
It quoted Fuleshwari as saying that she and other family members eat when they can, or they go hungry. Right now, there is no work, so they don’t earn and go hungry on most days. The home is bare, even of cooking utensils. Neighbours try to help, they all received food rations unlike Fuleshwari. She said that she feels like crying all the time, and that they might just die if this lockdown continues.
---
*The calls were made by students and other volunteers: Abinash, Aditi, Ananya, Anmol, Cheta, Eklavya, Krushna, Monisha, Natasha, Reetika, Ria, Sanmathi, Shailja, Sweta, Tanisha, Vanita and Xara

Comments

TRENDING

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.