Public Distribution System in Sikkim: A Comparative Analysis with North Eastern States of India

Abstract

Public Distribution System (PDS) is a food subsidy mechanism ensuring everyday essential food and non-food items such as rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene at a subsidised rate and also to insulate poor from rising market prices. In Sikkim, Public Distribution System started in 1978 and was further strengthened by introducing Targeted Public Distribution System(TPDS) in 1997 mainly focusing on the poor. North-Eastern states are geographically isolated and majority of the people have low economic status so Public Distribution System plays a significant role for the sustenance of their livelihood and hence it is important to have a transparency in the systemand not letting the poor one’s sleep empty stomach.The present paper intends to study the comparative analysis of Public Distribution System (PDS) in North Eastern states of India and its effectiveness in Sikkim. The secondary data has been collected from Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public distribution. The collected data has been analyzedby usingpercentage method and ratio analysis. The result of the study discloses that there is a wide gap between the ratio ofration card holders in Tripura(0.22) and Nagaland (0.13) and ratio of beneficiaries between Mizoram (0.98) and Meghalaya (0.30). Tripurais setting a good example in terms of effectiveness of Public Distribution System and has become first state among all the North Eastern states to offer intra state portability to beneficiaries where they can buy grains from any fair price shops in the state thereby making the system flexible. In Sikkim, the maximum number ofpeople deriving benefits from Public Distribution System are from Priority Household (PHH) category. In North Sikkim, there is a need to increase the number of fair price shops as such one fair price shop is looking after a huge number of beneficiaries.