New Delhi: The Centre’s initiative of converting state-based ration cards to avail subsidized food grains through public distribution network now covers 97% of the country’s eligible population in less than three years of its launch. One Nation One Ration Card scheme that was launched in August 2019, covered 77 crore beneficiaries at the end of February this year. It is almost 96.8% of the population covered under the National Food Safety Act in the country.
This scheme was beneficial to migrant workers during the pandemic as they could avail subsidized food grain anywhere in the country irrespective of their home states from where the ration cards were issued. The One Nation One Ration Card scheme (ONORC) which was started in four states in August 2019, was rolled out to 32 states and Union Territories by December 2020. Now, the scheme has been implemented in 35 states and Union Territories, covering nearly 97% of the eligible population.
What is One Nation One Ration Card Scheme?
One Nation One Ration Card is a countrywide innovation that allows all the beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA beneficiaries), particularly the migrant workers, who were hit hard by the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic to claim foodgrains from any fair price shop (ration shop) of their choice in the country. These migrant workers having 'one nation one ration' card can claim either full or a part of the subsidized ration allocated to them by using the existing ration card with biometric and Aadhaar based authentication in a seamless manner.
If a beneficiary claims only a part of the subsidized ration in a destination state then the system also allows other family members in the source state to claim the balance of food grains on the same ration card. The one-nation one-ration card scheme made the food subsidies portable to intended beneficiaries, particularly the migrant workers, during the COVID-19 pandemic, by allowing them to avail the benefit of subsidized food grains with the flexibility of getting the subsidized ration from any of the nearly 5 lakh ration shops in the country during the lockdown period.
90% of portability transactions done during Covid
Since the start of the scheme in August 2019, more than 65 crore portability transactions have been recorded in the States and Union Territories. Though the scheme started in August 2019, eight months before the first national lockdown was imposed in March 2020, the bulk of portability transactions, 58 crores out of 65 crores such portability transactions, which is nearly 90% of all such transactions, has been done during the Covid-19 period.
A total of nearly 121 lakh tons of food grain has been distributed to beneficiaries through both inter-state and intra-state portability transactions equivalent to about Rs 36,000 crore in food subsidy. At present, on average, about 2.7 crore portability transactions, including regular NFSA and PM-Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PM-GKAY) food grain transactions are being done through the one-nation one-ration card scheme.
A specially customized Android Mobile App on the one-nation one-ration card scheme is available in 13 languages and has been downloaded nearly 20 lakh times. The government has also launched a 5-digit toll-free number ‘14445’ for migrant workers, which are working in most of the states and union territories. The Department of Food and Public Distribution, the nodal agency behind the initiative, received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration, 2020 for the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme.
