Dalberg, a leading social impact advisory group today released an extensive study on “Fulfilling the promise of One Nation One Ration Card”.The study was designed to underline the value of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) reform launched in 2019.
ONORC today forms a key part of India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) and was designed primarily to benefit migrants.The study was supported by Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focused on social impact.
The report has found that the ONORC scheme which was primarily created to provide food safety to migrant families has had a positive impact even on non-migrants.It has given households benefiting from PDS more choice and flexibility to choose which Fair Price Shop (FPS) they can get their rations from.
While most households are aware of portability and their right to rations from any FPS, awareness of inter-state portability, (most applicable to the migrant workforce), is at 58%.The study also showed that while most ONORC transactions are successful, technology failures at FPS and fear of stockouts are the top reasons for denial of service.It found that despite government directives stating that rations cannot be denied due to failures occurring on account of technology, most PDS dealers were either unaware or unwilling to use any exception handling mechanism to issue rations in such situations.The study also reports that marginalized women found it most difficult to access their rations.
The study focused on five states, i.e., Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh which were among some of the early adopters of the scheme and account for more than 40% of PDS transactions conducted under portability.Among the first comprehensive studies of its kind, it highlights the impact and experience of ONORC on beneficiaries as well as PDS dealers, and can provide inputs to policymakers to improve the design and implementation of the scheme.
Key findings for Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh has seen comparatively higher awareness and uptake having launched ONORC early.
● Being an early adopter, Andhra Pradesh with more than16 lakh monthly transactions is among the top five states with regard to portability uptake.
● The state recorded the highest levels of awareness and uptake for portability among study states.92% of the households having a ration card were aware of portability.19% of these households tried to avail rations under portability in the month preceding the survey.
However, failure rates remained high, most often due to biometric authentication failure.
● 26% of the households that tried, could not collect their entitlements under portability in at least one of their visits, compared to 12% households across all the study states.
● Biometric authentication failure was among the key drivers of failure cited by 74% of the PDS dealers who were unable to serve ration card holders visiting them to avail rations under portability.
● Developing and implementing clear rules by the state government for use of alternate mechanisms to issue rations during biometric authentication failures could allow many more households to enjoy the benefits of One Nation One Ration Card scheme.
The flexible stock requisition system implemented by Andhra Pradesh could offer learnings for other states.
● Fear of stock outs among PDS dealers across study states is an important deterrent to serving ration card holders under portability.Andhra Pradesh has adopted a flexible stock requisition system that could offer learnings for other states to help better manage procurement, allocation, storage, and distribution of rations.
“India’s move to launch a ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ initiative (ONORC) right before the pandemic, has served many.For the first time a migrant worker moving to a new city or a newly married woman setting up a household has been able to access their food entitlement.
As the scheme gains nation-wide traction, we believe responding to some of the gaps, such as low awareness amongst beneficiaries of how and where they can access the portability features and reducing transaction failure rates is vital.Equally, learnings from the successes of early adopter states who have brought about important changes on the supply side, such as a flexible stock requisition system to better support PDS dealers, will prove crucial to helping put PDS in the hands of all”, said Swetha Totapally, Partner, Dalberg Advisors.
“The survey clearly shows that ONORC has made portability possible and that it can give citizens the ability to collect rations from a place of their choice.To make ONORC more inclusive and even more meaningful for every Indian, we need a focus on greater awareness of portability possibilities and technology upgradation of PDS dealers along with usage of offline methodologies to handle exceptions.
ONORC can potentially play a key role in mitigating crises in the future by creating a seamless food safety net for Indians, no matter where they live and where they are from.” Shilpa Kumar, Partner, Omidyar Network India.
The full report can be downloaded at India Policy Insights by Dalberg
Notes to Editors
Highlights on the methodology
● Dalberg has used a robust, mixed-methods approach with two surveys as core instruments involving nearly 6700 low-income households and 1500 PDS dealers from Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.The report was supported by a range of other research tools that allowed it to refine the survey instruments and triangulate results.
● Two key prerequisites for rolling out ONORC were largely fulfilled in our five study states: more than 98% of beneficiaries’ ration cards in each of our study states was seeded with Aadhaar and 95% of Fair Price Shops had an electronic point of sale machine (ePoS, for authenticating and recording transactions).
● The five states selected have significant inter and intra state migrant populations and were at different points in their ONORC roll out with a bias towards early adopters to draw lessons learned.
● The study involved non-migrant beneficiaries as well to understand the uptake and impact of ration portability more broadly.
About Dalberg Advisors
This work was led by the India offices of Dalberg Advisors.Dalberg Advisors is a strategic advisory firm within Dalberg that works collaboratively across public, private, and philanthropic sectors to fuel inclusive growth.Established in 2001, Dalberg currently employs more than 500 employees working in 29 worldwide locations.It has worked with clients in more than 90 countries.
About Omidyar Network India
Omidyar Network India invests in bold entrepreneurs who help create a meaningful life for every Indian, especially the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class.To drive empowerment and social impact at scale, we work with entrepreneurs in the private, nonprofit and public sectors, who are tackling India’s hardest and most chronic problems.
We make equity investments in early stage enterprises and provide grants to nonprofits in the areas of Digital Society, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights.
Omidyar Network India is part of The Omidyar Group, a diverse collection of companies, organizations and initiatives, supported by philanthropists Pam and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.
