PDS and Inferior Diet

Context

It has been found that with access to PDS subsidies people tend to opt for inferior diets that are too heavy on cereals.

Discussion

While the studies find that the use of public distribution system
(PDS) has increased sharply with the rise in the proportion of households getting PDS supply, there is not commensurate increase in the nutritional security especially among children. Contrary to the popular perception of PDS leakages and others to be the reason, the problem lies elsewhere. It has been found that the access to the PDS subsidies has changed the way people allocate their household resources. For instance, they tend to get their calories by eating more of rice, wheat and other cereals which are cheaply available than by consuming milk, fruits and vegetables. With increasing school and medical costs, the savings made by the households are not used to buy milk, fruits and nuts. Simply put, access to cheap calories has decreased the consumption of different foods and dietary diversity.

Way forward

To address this issue, cash transfers on nutritional grounds remains the only way out. This would allow households to invest in better diets without any compulsion of consuming what is given via PDS outlets.