Neo-Liberal Policy and Food Security in India: Impact on the Public Distribution System

This paper studies the problem of chronic hunger and malnutrition in India. The government of India introduced the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in 1997 replacing the Universal Public Distribution System (UPDS). It further analyses the functioning of Public Distribution System in India and its impact which shows that Targeted PDS has not been effective in ensuring food security to the needy. According to a Performance Evaluation by the Planning commission (PEO 2005), ‘the transition from universal PDS to TPDS has neither benefited the poor, nor helped reduce budgetary food subsidies.’ Policy making and implementation of the policies have failed miserably in respect of tackling this crisis of mass undernutrition in India