Over the past year or so, Indian experts have been wranglingover whether or not to scrap the so-called “public distribution system” thatprovides food to the poor at subsidized rates in favor of giving them cash tospend as they will.
Cash would help eliminate some corruption, advocates say,arguing that with cash in hand the poor won't be at the mercy of the owners of“ration shops,” who frequently short-change them and sell the subsidized grainin the ordinary market.
However, others say dispensing cash won't eliminate abuses,and worse still, will allow recipients to spend it on all kinds of stuffbesides food, such as booze.
What do the poor think?
According to a pilot program rolled out in a slum in WestDelhi, the poor, just like everybody else, prefer cash.
Citing Sunita, a participant in the pilot program, anational newspaper said that poor people used to get about Rs 300 worth of foodand other essentials from the ration shop, and then supplement that withanother Rs 1000 worth she had to buy on the open market. Under the cashtransfer pilot, she got Rs 1000 of cash, which went further.
“Earlier, we ahd to wait for weeks for the supplies,” thepaper quotes Sunita as saying. “And when they finally arrived, the quantitywould be less than our entitlement. Moreover, a substantial part of our grainsupply would consist of chaff. This is why we had to shell out Rs 1000 to makeup for the rest of the month.”
“People under the cash transfer scheme do not have to makethe rounds of the ration shops and eat substandard food,” said anotherresident, who was not selected for the pilot. “Given a choice, we would opt forcash transfer.”
