Food subsidies for the poor in India: are they working?

Abstract

This study examines food subsidy in India and assesses it critically against the objectives leading to its initiation. Using 61st round of National Sample Survey data on the monthly consumption of households for the year 2004-05, our study locates the outreach of Public Distribution System (PDS) in rural and urban areas in India and also examines its role in maintaining price stability. The findings of the study show that the outreach of PDS in the country is highly inadequate and concentrated more in the relatively developed and less poverty states than vice versa.