Ration Shops Research Articles

Evaluating the Impact of Fair Price Shops on Food Security: A Comprehensive Study within the Aspirational District Programme in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand

Abstract The Aspirational District Programme, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2018, aims to promote equitable development across 115 identified districts in India, including 19 in Jharkhand, with Hazaribagh situated in the North Chotanagpur division. This program operates under 49 indicators spread across five key sectors: Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure. A critical aspect of this initiative is the Health and Nutrition sector, which emphasizes the provision of nutritious food to ensure that no one faces hunger. Food security is vital in assessing whether individuals have consistent access to food, particularly through the Public Distribution System (PDS). This system includes numerous Fair Price Shops, or ration shops, tasked with delivering essential goods to individuals categorized as Below Poverty Line (BPL), Priority House Holds (PHH), and those under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) in Jharkhand, aimed at supporting the most impoverished families with subsidized rates set by the central government. My research focuses on several Fair Price Shops in Hazaribagh district, employing survey methods to gather primary data. The objective is to gain insights into the actual conditions of these ration shops and to evaluate the extent of benefits received by the local population.

Weed Seeds in Marketed Wheat and their Identification

Weed seeds of fifteen species representing 12 genera and 7 families have been observed, contaminated in wheat samples available in Calcutta ration shops. A key has been prepared for identification of these seeds.

Sustainability of Farmer Producer Organisation’s – Major constraints in functioning of FPO in Tamil Nadu, India

The concept of group formation and collectivization by organizing at the regional level is very important in the era of globalization and free trade liberalization. FPOs organize small farmers for forward linkages such as collective, marketing, processing, and market-driven agriculture production, as well as backward linkages for inputs like seeds, fertilizers, credit, insurance, knowledge, and extension services. Even though FPOs are doing well, still they face lot of challenges and struggle for their sustainability. Keeping these factors in view, the current study was done to determine the constraints, that Farmers' Producers Organization (FPO) faced for sustainable functioning. The study was conducted in Pennagaram block of Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu. 100 members of FPO were selected for the study. The interview schedule is used to collect the data. Rank Based Quotient (RBQ) was used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that lack of initiatives among the FPO members with the RBQ score of 83.83 under personal constraints, lack of well-developed processing facilities with the RBQ score of 90.00 under infrastructural constraints, lack of crop insurance facilities with the RBQ score of 93.00 under economic constraints, high transportation cost with the RBQ score of 95.17 under marketing constraints, weak economic status to run the organisation with the RBQ score of 86.38 under organisational constraints and lack of timely, cheap and good quality inputs with the RBQ score of 94.00 under technical constraints were the major constraints faced by the FPO members. Initiation among the FPO members, well developed processing and marketing facilities in their villages, provision of crop insurance for affected farmers, tax exemption, inclusion of their millets production in ration shops for supply are the suggestions expressed by the FPOs for their sustainability.

Advance Ration Distribution System Using IOT and GSM

Abstract: Ration card is very important for every house and it is used in various fields, it acts as a proof for details of family members, it helps in getting a gas connection, it can be used as a proof of address for various purposes etc. People having a ration card can buy various groceries such as rice, wheat, coconut oil etc. specified for them from the ration shops. Present ration system has Some imperfections, so we are trying to automate and upgrade the Ration Distribution System by our project. In this project, we have proposed an Automated Ration Material Distribution System based of Fingerprint/RFID login technology instead of traditional ration cards to get ration materials which uses manually hand written quantity feeding in the card but in our project, we have upgraded that part using IOT mail and SMS which will also reduce the effort of writing and carrying that old ration card but also it is time Consuming

Relevance of Article 21- Right to Life at Epidemic Like Covid 19

Right to Life is the most important human right envisaged by the international community as well as the constitution of India which means lock stock and barrel. Right to life concretes every other right to happen, because when the people have life then only, they can fight for other rights such as right to education, human dignity, freedom and nationality etc. This article sought to analyses the elements of article 21in the light of scenario of Covid 19 with an extended view. The entire planet has undergone the impacts of the havoc in everyday life owing to the rapid spread of the corona virus pandemic 2019(Covid 19) over the world. Many countries had to announced lockdown, command to shelter in place or issue stay at home order, to check the massive spread of the pandemic. Several arenas of the privacy of common people were also affected where the states had taken due care to release the personal data of people who had been quarantined and even the international community sought for it. The functioning of Arogya Sethu App in India hooks in to the ambit of right to privacy. Right guaranteed under Article 21A, government is under an obligation to make endeavor to impart educational facilities at all levels and under all circumstances. Indian population cannot pay to the basic technology which is currently being utilized to provide for the strayed school hours. The ones infected by Covid 19 as well as the one up and running on medical front are equally entitled under the right to health and medical care. Reflection upon the element of Right to food the State Government had taken time however assured constant availability of food stock to ration shops, but the migrant residents who did not have BPL cards were also considered by the government to avail food grains from ration shops. The effect of Covid 19 has called attention to the elasticity of the existing fundamental rights there by bringing forth prevailing loopholes of the system in to light.

Automatic Biometric Fingerprint Sanitization System

Fingerprint recognition is a safe and convenient biometric identification method that is increasingly being used for welfare program users. Many organizations employ fingerprint scanners to identify beneficiaries. The COVID-19 outbreak has jeopardized fingerprint authentication security. A group of people touching the sensors can result in viral transmission. COVID-19 can persist for at least 5 days on typical surfaces such as wood, plastic, metal, and glass, according to research. Despite all normal operational practices, shared public areas such as Ration Shops, attendance purpose in IT sectors and hospitals, etc... have raised the risk of virus transmission. In this context, the current study attempts to establish a safe and healthy environment for individuals by utilizing a UVC-based self-sanitizing technology for fingerprint scanners.

Smart Ration Distribution System Using RFID or Biometric

Abstract: Smart Ration Distribution System is one of the widely controversial issues that involve malpractice. The manual intervention in weighing of the materials leads to inaccurate measurements and/or it may happen, the ration shop owner illegally uses consumer materials without prior knowledge of ration card holders. The proposed system aids to control malpractices which are present in ration shops by replacing manual work with automatic systems based on RFID or biometric. Every consumer i.e., family head provided RFID card which acts as ration card. The RFID card has a unique identification number. The consumer scans the card on an RFID reader which is interfaced with a microcontroller kept at a ration shop or has to scan his finger at the fingerprint scanner to get his identity or details. Once the consumer is validated by details, the system automatically activates appropriate circuitry and the consumer gets material by weighing on the load cell and confirmation will be given by pressing a small push button. The same information will be transmitted to the head of family member mobile number.

Web Application for Ration Distribution System

This paper proposes the advanced Ration Distribution System, named as “Web Application for Ration Distribution Management”. Ration card is extremely vital for every home. It performs as address evidence for various purposes. It is used for various fields such as for obtaining family members details, to obtain gas connection, etc. Every home has a ration card to obtain the various materials (sugar, rice, oil, kerosene, etc.) from the ration shops. But if that ration card will be lost then owner of that card need to make new one and that takes a lot of time instead of that we can do all the things by using website and plus point is using this web application we can do the online secure transactions as well. This will help to make digitalization process and helps to reduce the corruption.

Virtual Queuing Ration Distribution in Cloud Environment

Ration shops are one of the main food product supply centers of Government. has an insignificant amount of goods, theft of material, large waiting time in the ration store and they keep all records in big paper file. This project is execute to overcome the obstacle that exist in the current distribution system. Ration cards are replaced with the smart card in which all the required information (name, contact number, aadhar number) are saved. Once the materials are delivered to the shops by government, through the websites or SMS all customer are asked to collect the ration.The customer checks the availability of products through the website to choose products as per their card type. Then customer will receive OTP to confirm order. Then the controller checks the customer code and details which is stored in database. Once the authentication of the customer is done, then the collecting time will send through SMS. The exact amount of food grains is extracted immediately and as soon as the ration is dispensed email notification is sent to the customer’s mobile.

Public Distribution System Using Concepts of IOT

In a growing and develop country like India specifically, Ration card is the important documents which poor people need. All the people having a ration card to buy the various materials (sugar, rice, oil, kerosene, etc.) from the ration shops which are funded by government. But as we know due to increasingly corruption and commercialization, it's becoming challenging day by day for people to get a hold of goods and stuffs what government sends in the same quality and quantity. In current scenario, this system is having two drawbacks. Firstly, the weight of the material may be inaccurate and inappropriate due to human manual mistakes and secondly, if we do not buy the goods and materials by the end of the month, they will re-sale to others without any intimation to the government and consumers. In this project, propose Automatic Ration Materials Distribution based on GSM (Global System for Mobile) and QR-code.

E-Ration System Using QR Code

In a growing and develop country like India specifically, Ration card is the important documents which poor people need. All the people having a ration card to buy the various materials (sugar, rice, oil, kerosene, etc.) from the ration shops which are funded by government. But as we know due to increasingly corruption and commercialization, it's becoming challenging day by day for people to get a hold of goods and stuffs what government sends in the same quality and quantity. In current scenario, this system is having two drawbacks. Firstly, the weight of the material may be inaccurate and inappropriate due to human manual mistakes and secondly, if we do not buy the goods and materials by the end of the month, they will re-sale to others without any intimation to the government and consumers. In this project, propose Automatic Ration Materials Distribution based on GSM (Global System for Mobile) and QR-code.

Transparency, exclusion and mediation: how digital and biometric technologies are transforming social protection in Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT What are the effects of biometric and digital technologies on social protection for the poor in India? Drawing on ethnographic research from rural Tamil Nadu, this paper presents evidence of how new technologies are experienced by beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (PDS), and analyses the impacts of technology innovations on transparency, exclusion and mediation. The authors focus on the implementation of ‘smartcards,’ new digitised and Aadhaar-enabled ration cards, introduced in ration shops across Tamil Nadu in 2017. They first document how digitised smartcards and mobile text messages transform transparency for beneficiaries by introducing new opacities and information gaps. They then demonstrate how a lack of transparency (re)produces forms of exclusion that remain a challenge under the automated PDS. Finally, the paper highlights how novel forms of kin and non-kin mediation play a mitigating role in accessing PDS, and constitute a vital part of the infrastructure underpinning social welfare delivery.

Economic Analysis on Covid-19 in Rural Economy

IntroductionThe government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak in four phases as Phase 1: 25 March 2020-14 April 2020 (21 days), Phase 2: 15 April 2020-3 May 2020 (19 days), Phase 3: 4 May 2020-17 May 2020 (14 days), Phase 4: 18 May 2020-31 May 2020 (14 days) and ban the people from stepping out of their homes and all human economic activities for their breadwinning are paralyzing all over India. The government of Tamil Nadu followed the central government order. It implemented the same, which leads a great loss of economic activities of every individual, specifically in the rural agricultural economy.Objectives• The general objective is to identify the Economic effect of Covid-19 in the study area, specifically.• To examine the socio-economic status of the respondents in Musuvanoothu Panchayat.• To find out the awareness, perception and adapted preventive measures apart from social distance in the study area and• To identify the challenges and problems due to lockdown in the study area.Methods and MaterialsIt is a cross-sectional study with primary data collected from a panchayat. A panchayat named Musuvanoothu was selected from Nilakkottai Taluk, Dindigul District. The panchayat is consists of six hamlets with 1078 ration cardholders receiving their ration items from two ration shops one in head village Musuvanoothu and another one in Kallukottai. The respondents were selected from the head village ration shop accessing people alone and the interviewed number is 615 out of 670. The remaining persons are reluctant to answer the questions raised by the interviewer. A Purposive nonrandom sampling method was used in this paper with simple percentage analysis.Results and DiscussionThree fourth of the respondents are belong to the high potential age group of the labor force and doing farming activities, specifically floriculture and intercropping with vegetables. The yields obtain during the lockdown period leftover on the farm and losing earnings in front of their eyesight. Advances of money taken from the flower and vegetable merchants for farming activities cannot repay/settle by the farmers in the study area. Also, respondents borrowed money from money lenders for their lockdown food consumption expenses.ConclusionHealthy innocent farming communities are suffering from stress and mental health issue due to lockdown. A good amount of economic loss incurred which can be mitigated or avoided if public cold storage is availed in the study area. Small and marginal farmer’s agricultural loans & credit may be waived for their betterment in forthcoming days.

A Proposed Model for Smart Public Distribution System of Ration Commodities to Indian Citizens using an IoT based Design

The paper deals with the methods adopted by India to eradicate the malpractices that take place while Ration Distribution. The responsibility of providing food and non-food items to the poor at subsidized rates is of the Government of India under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Food grains, such as wheat, rice, sugar and fuels like kerosene are the goods provided through a network of fair price shops also known as ration shops established in several states across the India. The main motive of such scheme is to ensure that the citizens of India get ample food material whatever their financial condition. But still the goal is not achieved due to problems like ration hijacking, delivery of false ration, corruption, etc. and these troubles have been resolved by the developed solution.

Can Rationing Increase Welfare? Theory and an Application to India’s Ration Shop System

In many developing countries, households can purchase limited quantities of goods at a fixed subsidized price through ration shops. This paper asks whether the characteristics of developing countries explain why governments use such systems. I find an equity-efficiency trade-off: an efficiency-maximizing government will never use ration shops, but a welfare-maximizing one might to redistribute and provide insurance. Welfare gains of ration shops will be highest for necessity goods and goods with high price risk. I calibrate the model for India and find that ration shops are welfare improving for three of the four goods sold through the system today. (JEL D12, H23, H25, O12)

Biometric Infrastructures and the Indian Public Distribution System

This paper reflects on the author’s nine-year research on the transformation of India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) enacted through digital technologies first and, more recently, through Aadhaar’s biometric infrastructure. Based on the experiences of two states, Kerala and Karnataka, which adopted biometric identification in their ration shops, the paper illustrates the effects of the transition to an Aadhaar-based PDS, on both program governance and recipients’ entitlements. It argues that, while designed with the objective of combating the rice mafia resulting in foodgrain diversion, a biometric PDS does not prevent the exclusion errors pervading the program, and supports the transition to a cash transfer system whose developmental outcomes are still uncertain. Contributing to the debate on coded citizenship in South Asia, this paper reflects on the transformative power that biometric infrastructures yield over food security schemes, and considers different ways a computerized PDS may be tailored for the inclusion of vulnerable groups.

Autonomous Ration Shops Using Database Management System and Embedded System

This paper centres around structure and execution of Automation of Ration Shop. In ongoing situation, all general society and private parts go for computerization in their procedure. Common Supplies Corporation is the significant open segment which oversees and conveys the basic items to all the residents. A portion of the restrictions of traditional proportion shop framework are because of manual estimations in the ordinary framework, consequently the client can not ready to get the precise amount of material. And furthermore there is an opportunity for the unlawful utilization of the items in the regular framework. for example the materials are taken by making incorrectly sections in the register without the information on the apportion card holder. And furthermore the moderate preparing keeps a long line before the shop. To defeat these issues we go for the mechanization of the apportion shops. This article aims for the sequential recording of ration shop transactions to a database using a network of clients with a server. The paper involves a client side and server side. The client PC is the one which is in the ration shop and the server side contains the database and a PC. The client PC is connected with a weighing machine. The client module consists of arduino microcontroller, which is with the weighing machine. The customer with a ration card can have his allotted items and which will be updated to the server as he receives it. The weight of the item is recorded by the microcontroller based weighing machine to the PC. The customer can access the details of his purchase and the amount of items left in the shop through an ASP.NET based webpage. The server stores all the allotted items to a ration shop for each and every customer and also the total items allotted for the ration shop. This project aims in the minimization of ration related corruption including the black-market reselling of goods and also the incorrect weights of items supplied and price related issues.

When Biopolitics Turn Digital: Transparency, Corruption, and Erasures from the Infrastructure of Rationing in Delhi

AbstractFollowing the ratification of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013, the Indian state digitized its food rationing infrastructure, replacing paper‐based ration cards with digital rationing documents and other technologies of authentication. The shift from analog to digital documentary practices has rematerialized documents and devices to enable closer monitoring of the exchange of food entitlements in ration shops. Making biopolitics digital has enabled the state to exert greater control over rationing practices by rendering them more transparent. However, the state's obsession with preventing practices of corruption has hindered, rather than facilitated, access to entitlements for some rightful beneficiaries of the NFSA.

Does coal mining affect household food security? An empirical study of Dhanbad, India

BackgroundMining industries have enormous potential to improve food shortage by providing employment opportunities in its mining vicinity. But, simultaneously, these areas also suffer from ‘resource curse’ due to detrimental effects of mining. Hence, this study examined the effects of coal mining on household food availability and food access among proximate population residing in resource-rich but economically backward mining region of Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, India. The primary data was collected from two compare groups, viz. households from exposed versus non-exposed villages of mining effect under the cross-sectional research design using structured questionnaire between September, 2014, and February, 2015. Both bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to assess the study objectives.ResultsFinding shows that households from non-mines affected villages were at 40% higher risk of food shortage than household from mines affected villages. Furthermore, odds ratio shows that rise in percentage of expenditure on food also increases the food shortage vulnerability. Female-headed households, below poverty line households and MNREGA card holders households were significantly positively related to food shortage. In contrast, households with membership of any socio-political organization and more than 2 acres of farmland were significant negatively associated with food shortage. Procurement of food on credit from ration shops was found to be a predominant strategies to cope with food shortage, followed by borrowing food from neighbours and relatives.ConclusionIn nutshell, the study shows that households from non-mines affected villages were at high risk of food shortage. However, percentage expenditure on food indicator reveals that household from mines affected villages was comparatively more vulnerable to food shortage than its counterpart. The membership of any socio-political organization emerges as a main factor which reduces the risk of food shortage.

Geographical analysis of fair price shops in Mysuru city

Fair Price Shops are very common in India. Fair Price Shops are the cheap stores that give immense subsidies necessary commodities. Runs by government ration shops offer almost half and sometimes less than half price for all the products. The present research paper to assess the spatial distribution of Fair Price Shops in Mysuru city, As a result of socio and economic conditions Fair Price Shops are not evenly distributed in Mysuru city. The present research paper to collect the ward wise total population, number of households and number of fair price shops data through the secondary source such as the food and civil supplier Department of Mysore city, Journals, reports, projects, books, census of India and others. Using the statistical method like concentration, than to show the spatial distribution of fair price shops in Mysuru city by use of some cartographic techniques like Maps and Graphs. Use the Arc GIS 10 for the preparation of maps. The study found that in Mysuru city 5 out of 9 zones have more number of Fps like 1, 2, 6, 7, and 9 the remaining 4 zones like 3, 8, 4 and 5 have the comparatively less fair price shops. Keywords: Fair price shops; concentration