Grains Of Transformation

One-Nation-One-Ration-Card is a tool for wider empowerment, says commerce, food & public distribution minister

- Piyush Goyal

A silent revolution is sweeping the country, providing nearly 80 crore Indians the unprecedented empowerment of food security – the freedom to buy heavily subsidised grains from any fair price shop (FPS) in the country. This takes welfare and the pro poor approach of the Modi government to a new high and sets in motion processes that will have a bigger transformational impact than what many people imagine.

The One-Nation-One-Ration-Card (ONORC) scheme is not just a high-impact welfare scheme that supports and nourishes the underprivileged. It exposes FPSs to fierce competition and is an economic catalyst, because migrants are now able to buy heavily subsidised grain in cities and can purchase other products with the money saved.

In India, about 6 crore people migrate to another state and 8 crore migrate within their state seasonally. ONORC is a game changer for migrant workers across many states including Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, when such workers went to cities to work, they lost their entitlement for subsidised grain as they were tied to the FPS back home. If they were registered at an FPS in a city, their families would have bought grain at much higher market rates.

With ONORC, the worker and the family can both get the benefits easily. Their savings are huge because apart from the heavily subsidised grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), they are also given free supplies under the Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY).