IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v51y2015i6p642-659.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the PDS Already a Cash Transfer? Rethinking India's Food Subsidy Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Sujata Balasubramanian

Abstract

Critics argue that India's mismanaged Public Distribution System (PDS), which sells subsidised cereals to poor families, should be replaced by cash transfers. Others fear cash may be misused. Using National Sample Survey data, this article demonstrates that families treat additional PDS subsidies wholly as a source of cash - exactly like a cash transfer. More worryingly, cereal consumption has not increased, despite higher real subsidies. Moreover, neither the PDS nor cash transfers are likely to raise total food expenditure in poor families. Finally, therefore, the paper explores how higher food consumption and other objectives of PDS subsidies may be achieved.

Suggested Citation

  • Sujata Balasubramanian, 2015. "Is the PDS Already a Cash Transfer? Rethinking India's Food Subsidy Policies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(6), pages 642-659, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:51:y:2015:i:6:p:642-659
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2014.997221
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2014.997221
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2014.997221?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2011. "Social Protection for a Changing India : Executive Summary," World Bank Publications - Reports 2746, The World Bank Group.
    2. Breunig, Robert & Dasgupta, Indraneel & Gundersen, Craig & Pattanaik, Prasanta, 2001. "Explaining The Food Stamp Cash-Out Puzzle," Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Reports 33869, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. World Bank, 2011. "Social Protection for a Changing India : Main Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 2745, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vandita Dar & Madhvi Sethi & Saina Baby, 2023. "Direct Cash Transfers in Emerging Economies: The Case of India," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 11(2), pages 287-308, May.
    2. Jaspars, S. & Sathyamala, C., 2021. "Digital bodies and digitalised welfare: North-South linkages in the politics of food assistance and social welfare," ISS Working Papers - General Series 687, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    3. Phadera,Lokendra & Sharma,Dhiraj & Wai-Poi,Matthew Grant, 2020. "Iraq's Universal Public Distribution System : Utilization and Impacts During Displacement," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9155, The World Bank.
    4. Nelson Benjamin Villoria & Elliot Wamboka Mghenyi, 2017. "The Impacts of India's Food Security Policies on South Asian Wheat and Rice Markets," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 730-746.
    5. Aurino, Elisabetta & Morrow, Virginia, 2018. "“Food prices were high, and the dal became watery”. Mixed-method evidence on household food insecurity and children’s diets in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 211-224.
    6. Min Zhu & Chuanmin Shuai & Xiaoyan Wang & Zhihui Leng & Fan Zhang, 2019. "Analysis of China’s policy effect on poverty alleviation: evidence from Chongqing in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 1325-1345, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armando Barrientos & Sony Pellissery, 2012. "Delivering effective social assistance: does politics matter?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-009-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    2. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2020. "Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    3. Ugo Gentilini, 2016. "The Other Side of the Coin," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 24593, December.
    4. Puja Dutta & Rinku Murgai & Martin Ravallion & Dominique van de Walle, 2014. "Right to Work? Assessing India's Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 17195, December.
    5. M. Dinesh Kumar & Chetan M. Pandit, 2018. "India’s water management debate: is the ‘civil society’ making it everlasting?," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 28-41, January.
    6. Mukesh Sud & Craig VanSandt, 2015. "Identity Rights: A Structural Void in Inclusive Growth," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 589-601, December.
    7. Gentilini,Ugo, 2016. "The revival of the"cash versus food"debate : new evidence for an old quandary ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7584, The World Bank.
    8. Ana Miranda, 2018. "Public food procurement from smallholder farmers: literature review and best practices," Working Papers 176, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    9. Mariana Infante-Villarroel, 2015. "Framework for the Development of Social Protection Systems," World Bank Publications - Reports 22320, The World Bank Group.
    10. Parmar, Divya & Banerjee, Aneesh, 2019. "Impact of an employment guarantee scheme on utilisation of maternal healthcare services: Results from a natural experiment in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 285-293.
    11. Bahal, Girish & Shrivastava, Anand, 2021. "Supply variabilities in public workfares," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    12. Uma Purushothaman, 2011. "Indian and American Perspectives on Food Security," International Studies, , vol. 48(3-4), pages 281-303, July.
    13. Klonner, Stefan & Oldiges, Christian, 2022. "The welfare effects of India’s rural employment guarantee," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    14. Hickey, Sam & Sen, Kunal & Bukenya, Badru (ed.), 2016. "The Politics of Inclusive Development: Interrogating the Evidence," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198788829, Decembrie.
    15. Berg, Erlend & Bhattacharyya, Sambit & Rajasekhar, D. & Manjula, R., 2018. "Can public works increase equilibrium wages? Evidence from India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 239-254.
    16. Shareen Hertel, 2015. "Hungry for Justice: Social Mobilization on the Right to Food in India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(1), pages 72-94, January.
    17. Mariana Infante-Villarroel, 2015. "Institutional Landscape for Implementation and Financing of Social Protection Programs," World Bank Publications - Reports 22326, The World Bank Group.
    18. Christopher Garroway, 2013. "How much do small old age pensions and widow’s pensions help the poor in India?," Development Papers 1306, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) South and South-West Asia Office.
    19. Indraneel Dasgupta & Ravi Kanbur, 2011. "Does philanthropy reduce inequality?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, March.
    20. Nordström, Jonas & Thunström, Linda, 2009. "The impact of tax reforms designed to encourage healthier grain consumption," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 622-634, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:51:y:2015:i:6:p:642-659. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.