Bhubaneswar: A large number of newlywed women are unable to access their share of ration, as their names are cancelled from their parental card but not added to their marital family’s ration card.
According to a study by Right To Food Campaign’s Odisha chapter, the state lacks a clear and transparent process to port the names of migrated individuals or add new names to existing ration cards. The process remains both unclear and cumbersome to navigate after Aadhaar seeding and digitisation of the public distribution system (PDS) or implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card scheme by the Central government.
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Crores of women migrate after marriage, and a large fraction of these risk exclusion from the PDS. The 2011 census shows that 46% of migration was due to marriage, of which 97%, or 20.58 crore migrants, were women. The last census also reveals that 78% of Odisha’s total population are PDS beneficiaries. Observing the widespread exclusion of women, it is estimated that at least ten lakh women have been left out from the PDS since NFSA came into force.
Access to food has drastically reduced after the COVID-19 lockdown and the resulting loss of income. Exclusion from PDS will further decrease food intake of families, and worsen the already abysmal nutritional status of children, adolescent girls and women.
The Odisha government must commit to improving transparency and accessibility of PDS, the NGOs working on women’s rights and food issues in the state demand.
Firstly, a standard operating procedure for porting newlywed women’s names from parental to marital ration cards in a time-bound manner must be issued after consultation with different stakeholders. A grievance redressal system should be implemented to identify and fix gaps in the process.
Secondly, transparency must be improved at the Fair Price Shops (FPS) where ration is disbursed. Beneficiaries are not aware that their names have been successfully added to their maternal family’s card after being deleted from the parental card. A mechanism to inform when a beneficiary’s name is deleted or added to a card via SMS or written letter should be implemented immediately.
Thirdly, as the ration card management system (RCMS) is dynamic, information must be easily available for beneficiaries so that they can verify their status. For this, the list of beneficiaries must be pasted at each FPS every month. These two measures can improve access of newlywed to their entitlement.
PNN