Household Consumption in India

Public Distribution System and Other Sources of Household Consumption, 2004-05

Report No. 510 on “Public Distribution System and Other Sources of Household Consumption, 2004-05” based on the seventh quinquennial survey on Household Consumer Expenditure carried out during the NSS 61^st round (July, 2004 - June, 2005) by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has been released. This is one of the reports in the series of seven reports to be brought out on the basis of the survey. The report is based on the data collected on type of ration card possessed, benefits received from four selected food assistance schemes of the Government, sources of consumption of various items and consumption of rice, wheat/atta, sugar and kerosene from Public Distribution System (PDS) by the households. All the data are provided separately for rural and urban sectors of each State and Union Territory of India.

Like all regular NSS surveys, the present survey covered practically the whole of the Indian Union. All States and Union Territories were covered under the survey except some interior areas of Nagaland, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Ladakh and Kargil districts of Jammu & Kashmir. The survey was spread over 7999 villages and 4602 urban blocks covering 79298 rural and 45346 urban households respectively.

Some findings of the survey are given below:

· Ration cards were held by 81% of rural households and 67% of urban households. Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards were held by 26.5% of rural households and 10.5% of urban households. Antyodaya card holders were less than 3% of rural households and less than 1% of urban households.

· About 18.7% of the households in the rural area and about 33.1% of the households in the urban area did not possess any card.

· Among the bottom of the rural households ranked by monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE), an estimated 41% only held BPL ration cards. On the other hand, among top 5% of the rural population, an estimated 11% households held BPL ration cards. Among the next 5% of rural population 14% of households held BPL card, and among the next 10% of rural population, 18% of households held BPL ration card.

· In urban areas, among the bottom MPCE class households, only 29% held BPL ration cards.

· In rural area out of the total ration card holder households about 10% were Schedule Tribe households, 22% were Schedule Caste households, 42% were Other Backward Class (OBC) households and 26% were other households.

· In urban area out of the total ration card holder households about 2% were Schedule Tribe households, 16% were Schedule Caste households, 35% were OBC households and 47% were held by other households.

· 43% of “agricultural labour” households and 32% of “other labour” households in the rural area were in the possession of the BPL card.

· As many as 51% of rural households possessing less than 0.01 hectares of land had no ration card at all, while in all other size classes 77-86% households held a ration card of some type. In respect of ration cards meant for the poor, the class possessing “0.01-0.40 hectares” was the one with the highest proportion of cards for both BPL (32%) and Antyodaya (4%).

· The major State where consumption of rice from PDS was most common was Tamil Nadu followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

· PDS consumption of wheat/atta was most common in Karnataka, rural areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and in Madhya Pradesh .

· PDS consumption of sugar, like rice, was most prevalent in Tamil Nadu followed by Assam and Andhra Pradesh. Fewer than 2% households consumed PDS sugar in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.

· Over 55% of rural households used PDS kerosene in all major States except Punjab and Haryana. Use of PDS kerosene was most common in West Bengal for both rural areas (91% households) and urban areas (60%).

· In 2004-05, in rural India the Midday Meal scheme benefited children from an estimated 22.8% of households, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) benefited 5.7% of households, the Food-for-Work Scheme, to 2.7% households, and the Annapoorna scheme to only 0.9% households.

· Among social groups, the Scheduled Tribes had the highest proportion of Food-for-Work and ICDS beneficiary households in both rural and urban India.