One-Nation-One-Ration-Card suffers from exclusion issues, say experts

Scheme does not embrace 100 mn people who are otherwise entitled to NFSA ration cards, but don't possess them simply because the list has not been updated since 2011

The Supreme Court of India came down heavily on the Centre’s handling of the migrant problem during the ongoing Covid crisis and, in a landmark decision last month, directed it to complete the work on ration card portability, called the One-Nation-One-Ration-Card (ONORC) scheme by July end along with preparing a national database of all migrants.

It also directed the state governments to introduce a scheme to supply dry rations and set up community kitchens to ensure migrant workers without ration cards do not go hungry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to news reports, the Supreme Court said in its 80-page order that most of the states have been harping about  providing food grains free of cost for two months, that is, May and June 2021. The State of West Bengal has said there is no scheme for providing dry ration to migrant workers.

“Especially during this pandemic, the states/union territories have to make extra efforts to reach migrant labourers so that no migrant labourer is denied two meals a day,” the SC order said.

Between the two, several experts and civil society activists feel that providing dry rations or setting up community kitchens is better as ONORC has its own limitations and isn’t the perfect solution answer to providing access to migrants or people who aren’t staying in their home state to cheap food.

What is ONORC?

ONORC or ration card portability is a long-drawn project of the Central government (launched in August 2019) and is part of PDS reforms as mandated in the National Food Security Act of 2013.

The basic objective of ONORC is to ensure that people who have shifted from the place where their names are included in the list of ration card holders can avail their quota of grains from anywhere else.

In other words, a PDS beneficiary will no longer be tied up to his or her designated ration shop to get the monthly quota of subsidised ration.

Let's say a person from Balia district of UP shifts to Mumbai for work, either alone or with his family. As per current rules, his name is included in the list of ration card holders in Balia, where he was a resident when the card was made.

Before ONORC, he was not allowed to draw his monthly quota of ration from any shop in Mumbai while in Balia, his family members got their share of ration.

However, with ration card portability in place, the same person can now go to any ration shop in Mumbai, enter his Aadhaar number, get it authenticated in the e-PoS machine and obtain his monthly entitlement of grains.

His family members back in Balia continue to draw their share of ration unhindered.

There are a few basic requirements for ensuring this portability. First, the ration cards should be digitised, second, it should be ceded to the Aadhaar. Third, the ration shop from where the monthly quota is to be availed needs to have an electronic point-of-sale (e-PoS) machine installed.

As soon as the portable transaction is registered in an e-PoS machine, it gets noted in two websites impds.nic.in and annavitran.nic.in, which keep a centralised database of all such transactions and disbursals.

This is vital to ensure that the shops that migrants visit outside their native places are sufficiently stocked to cater to their needs. Usually, ration shop just keep enough grains for the beneficiaries on their list.

The same process is followed for inter-state and even inter-district transactions.

Progress of ONORC

Official data shows 32 states and union territories have enabled ONORC since its inception in August 2019, by fulfilling all the parameters such as digitising ration cards, Aadhar seeding them, setting up e-PoS machines in ration shops etc.

In all, around 690 million NFSA beneficiaries, or 86 per cent of the estimated population covered by the Act, are now part of ONORC. These people can now get their rations from any PDS shop anywhere in the country except in the four states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal. These states, the Centre believes, will join by July 2021.

“As per our information, of the four states that aren’t part of ONORC yet, Delhi and Chhattisgarh have started procuring the e-PoS machines, which work is also progressing fast in West Bengal. In Assam, Aadhaar seeding is a problem as the state doesn’t have total Aadhaar coverage so far,” food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey recently told reporters.

Despite all these hiccups, between 13 million and 15 million portability transactions a month have been recorded under ONORC so far in April, May and June this year, during the peak of the second Covid-19 wave.

These transactions delivered regular NFSA entitlements and along with extra free grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, amounting to around Rs 3,500 crore in food subsidy.

In total, according to the Central government, more than 293 million portability transactions have taken place all across the 32 States/UTs since the inception of ONORC in August 2019, of which almost 212.5 million (73 per cent approx) have been recorded during the Covid-19 period of April 2020-June 2021 itself.

Food subsidies of about Rs 20,000 crore have been delivered through ONORC so far.

Criticism of ONORC

One of the biggest drawbacks of ONORC is that it only embraces those who possess NFSA ration cards and leaves out others who get their food entitlement under any state scheme.

Also, ration card portability is for only those who have their names included in the list of PDS beneficiaries as per NFSA, which was last updated in 2011.

This deprives a staggering 100 million people of the benefits of the scheme, who don't have NFSA ration cards despite being eligible for them, simply because the list was not updated after 2011.

“Many urban workers, often migrants, do not have a ration card. ‘One-nation-one-ratio-card’ (ONORC) can only help those with a ration card. The need of the hour is to increase the number ration card holders from 800 million to 900-1,000 billion, so that exclusions can be reduced. FCI has more than enough grain to allow this,” Reetika Khera, Associate professor (economics), IIT Delhi told Business Standard.

She said the technology for ONORC is exclusionary and broken--it can derail the PDS for even those who currently benefit from it.

Right to Food Campaign Activist and Ambedkar University Faculty, Dipa Sinha in a recent article in Outlook highlighted few of the drawbacks of ONORC.

Sinha wrote that even in the case of migrant workers who have NFSA ration cards, there are several implementation issues in ONORC.

“The Aadhaar number of the beneficiary has to be seeded and the ration shops must be e-POS enabled. The failures of biometric authentication, as well as network issues, have been well documented. Several logistical arrangements need to be put in place, which is quite complex. The food entitlements currently vary across states and the ONORC would cover only those with an NFSA ration card but not a state ration card,” Sinha said.

That apart, she said that there needs to be a dynamic stock and inventory system for every ration shop.

Based on the current off-take under ONORC, Sinha wrote that with the data available so far, it seems ONORC has not been very effective in reaching out to migrant workers. And given the concerns of Aadhaar-based exclusions, the ONORC might not be a very inclusive system.

She also highlighted the bigger concern of those without NFSA ration cards being left out as the PDS lists haven’t been updated.

Though the Centre says the PDS list under NFSA can only be updated every 10 years and the next revision is due in 2022, civil society activists say given the extraordinary nature of the distress due to the global pandemic, nothing stops the Centre from including more people under NFSA as an interim measure pending final preparation of updated list.

Between ONORC and free grains

Between ONORC and free grains with bare minimum documentation, most civil society activists believe that it is the latter that can give greater benefit particularly during the current Covid crisis.

Last year, during the first Covid wave, the Centre had said it would distribute grains to non-ration card holders under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package free of cost and also otherwise.

According to latest data, around 966,000 tonnes of grains were distributed to non-ration card holders between March 25, 2020 and March 31, 2021.

This year, in April and May, 270,000 tonnes of wheat and rice were distributed to non-ration card holders, according to the Central government.

“We have already provided adequate quantities of grains for distribution to non-ration card holders which could also be migrants and now it is upto the states to start the distribution,” Food Secretary Pandey said. 

ONORC salient points

a)    Total States/UTs on board: 32

b)    States yet to join: 04

c)    Total portability transactions since August 2019: 293 million

d)    Total portability transactions during Covid: 212.5 million

e)    Total subsidy delivered in this process: Rs 20,000 crore