One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC)

''Rationing-: A fair share to all the citizens of the country, through artificial control on scarce resources, food items, and industrial production. " 

In April 2019, the Department Of Food And Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs introduced the "One Nation, One Ration Card" scheme on a pilot basis in 4 states. The scheme strived to ensure food security to all the ration beneficiaries from any Public Distribution System's Fair Price Shop (FSP)/centre across India. It was launched under the National Food Security Act 2013.

National Food Security Act, 2013 :

The act commenced in 2013 intending to provide a legal right to every person belonging to the 'eligible household' category to receive food grains at a subsidized price under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). The TPDS identifies the poor households and gives them the fixed entitlement of food grains at a subsidized price.

Who are Eligible Households?

1. The Priority Households who belong to the rural areas are entitled to get 5kg of food grains per person per month.

 2. The families that fall under the "Antyodaya Anna Yojna" (poorest of the poor), gets 35 kg per month. ANTYODAYA ANNA YOJNA was ideated to target the poorest like landless labourers, homeless workers, etc and provide them relief from hunger.

Now, What Is ONORC ?

One Nation, One Ration Card Scheme is a Union Government initiative to combine all the state-wise ration cardholders as nationals; to enable the *inter & intra-state portability of the ration card*. It allows the beneficiaries, especially migrants, to buy the food items (wheat, rice, oil, etc.) from any Fair Price Shop (FSP) pan India, with the existing ration card, via biometric authentication/Aadhar Card at the subsidised rates.

Earlier, migration workers could obtain ration exclusively from the locality they were registered in. Whereas, after the ONORC, people are entitled to avail themselves of the benefits with flexibility from any ration centre in India. For instance, if a man named Govind from Baliya in UP, migrates to Gujarat in search of work, will be entitled to food security under NFSA at his workplace. While his family members back in UP will also be able to get the ration from their local ration dealer.

While another motive has been to reduce the cases of middleman corruption and ration card frauds to obtain benefits from several states.

After the successful implementation of ONORC, it has been adopted by 32 states /UTs nationwide. Further, the integration of the remaining 4 states/UTs (Delhi, W.Bengal, Assam & Chattisgarh) will be done shortly.

Central Government has been taking various initiatives & conducting promotion campaigns to reach out to the needy.

Mera Ration: An Initiative

To facilitate ONORC, the government in March 2021, introduced the 'Mera Ration' mobile app to assist citizens in locating the nearest Fair Price Shops (FSP) under PDS & the available food items, their prices etc. It also supports biometric authentication. The app fosters the poor through Adhaar seeding of ration cards, i.e. linking the adhaar no. with the personal identification documents, who lack the digital resources.

The app was developed in association with NIC "to facilitate various ONORC related services among National Food Security(NFSA) beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, FPS dealers and other relevant stakeholders," the ministry said in a statement.

 Objectives:

1. The major objective is to ensure the food grains are accessible at subsidy to the poorest and deprived section of the society, while they migrate to earn a livelihood.

2. Relaxation to poors in investing money for making ration cards according to places & boost their savings.

3. Unlock a path for the unprivileged towards digitalisation through the app.

4. To lower the incidents of starvation and further improve the country's rank in Global Hunger Index & Human Development Index (HDI).

Awareness Campaigns:

The Department of Food & public affairs is extensively promoting the ONORC in Hindi, English & Regional languages; via Audio announcements on more than 2,400 railway stations across the country and Radio Spots on 167 FM and 91 Community Radio Stations (with the message of Prime Minister), Bus Wraps on State Transport Buses across all States/UTs under ONORC, Outdoor Publicity and display of banners, posters, etc. For public outreach, vigorous use of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and MyGov. is being done as a part of the awareness campaign. VC and Webcasting tools are in use to provide in-depth training and capacity building for district-level authorities, field functionaries, and FPS dealers.

Monetary Funds

The government has also provided incentives to states to encourage reform of the outdated Public Distribution System (PDS). During the Covid-19 outbreak last year, the Centre even made the implementation of ONORC a condition for states borrowing additional money. In 2020-21, at least 17 states that implemented the ONORC reform were allowed to borrow an additional Rs 37,600 crores.

CONCLUSION :

The ONORC has proved to be a tremendous success in a short span, covering nearly 69-70℅ beneficiaries in the country. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a value-added service for each NFSA beneficiary, particularly migrants, as it allowed them to access subsidised foodgrains from any location, wherever they were, at any time during the lockdown/crisis period. The scheme has enabled 1.5-1.7 crores (approx) of monthly portability transactions & has ensured its maximum benefits in the budget of 2021-22 to crores of people. It preserves people's interests and supports their rights by improving the condition of hunger level. As moving into the highway of digitalization, supports the ease of doing business and shows the power distribution reform through urban local bodies. Thus, it allows the unprivileged section of society to enjoy their life in a dignified manner.

Stay Smart & Stay Satark !

Blog By ~ Divya Singh

Edit By ~ Pooja Malkhani