Public Distribution System & Food Security: A Study of Bikali Samabay Samiti Area, Goalpara

Planned development schemes have enabled India to be self sufficient in food grain production in the 1970s which was pushed by the initiative under green revolution. But this self sufficiency in food grain in national level did not percolate down to households that resulted into high chronic food insecurity among the rural poor till today. One third of rural people being below the standard Body Mass Index (BMI), half of the rural children suffering from malnutrition, iron deficiency that is quite rampant among the pregnant women residing in remote villages and more prominently 24 per cent lying Below Poverty Level are some of the evidences of food insecurity. Further, the food insecurity necessitates the Indian Parliament to raise Food Security Bill 2011. For combating food insecurity, a plethora of initiative has been adopted time to time by the Government of India. Integrated Child Development Scheme in 1975, Mid-day Meal Scheme in 1995, Targeted Public Distribution System in 1997, Antyodaya Anna Yojana in 2000, MGNREGA in 2005 and National Food Security Mission during 11th plan are among major initiatives. Despite initiatives taken by the government during last couple of decades, there is still poverty in plenty, especially in rural India.Bikali Area, comprising of 52 villages surrounding Dhupdhara in Goalpara district of Assam has been sustaining the Panchayat level cooperative society under the purview of Bikali Samabay Samiti. In the context of PDS and Food Security, a discourse into the provision and working of the cooperative system is felt necessary. The present study attempts to evaluate the issues pertaining to its performance, food availability, food carriage, food storage and management of food items among rural poor.