Is PMGKAY still needed?

Last Updated11/11/2021

A scheme to provide free food grain to ration card holders as part of COVID-19 relief comes to an end this month.
While the Food Ministry is of the opinion that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is no longer needed as the economy is reviving, Right to Food activists insist that vulnerable communities still need the support, arguing that the government has sufficient grain stocks to extend the scheme.

The scheme is a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat and is aimed to provide free food grains to migrants and the poor.
The scheme was announced as a relief package for the poor in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
During the period May - November 2021, more than 81.35 crore people are to be provided 5 kg free wheat/rice per person / month along with 1 kg free whole chana to each family per month.
Wheat has been allocated to 6 States/UTs, - Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi and Gujarat and rice has been provided to the remaining States/UTs.
This is over and above the regular monthly entitlements under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA).

Families belonging to the Below Poverty Line - Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories will be eligible for the scheme.
PHH are to be identified by State Governments/Union Territory Administrations as per criteria evolved by them. AAY families are to be identified by States/UTs as per the criteria prescribed by the Central Government:
Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
All primitive tribal households.
Landless agricultural labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitutes and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV positive persons.

The pandemic still exist
Post lockdown unemployment is at record levels
there is widespread hunger and malnutrition among vulnerable communities
Food commodities are becoming unaffordable for poor and lower middle class due to increasing prices after pandemic

Economy is reviving after pandemic induced lockdown slowdown
States are free to buy rice and wheat under OMSS(open market sale scheme), and distribute it to migrants and other vulnerable communities.
Fiscal Deficit is rising due to increased expenditure on public welfare services
Vulnerable sections are already eligible to have ration from Fair Price Shops under National Food Security Act (NFSA)

In the last few years, food grains have been produced at record levels.
Government has been procuring from farmers at minimum support prices at increased levels, especially in the aftermath of the farm protests against three agricultural reform laws, as it wants to prove that the laws would not affect procurement.
In June and July 2021, stocks of rice and wheat in the Food Corporation of India stood above 900 lakh tonnes. By October, stocks stood at 724 lakh tonnes, almost 100 lakh tonnes higher than in the previous year.
It means that food stocks with the Food Corporation of India are at an all time high and well above the buffer requirement, with stocking norms for the central pool for October standing at only 307 lakh tonnes, including a strategic reserve of 50 lakh tonnes.

According to “The Right to Food Campaign '' , the amount of grain in FCI godowns would be sufficient to universalise PDS and extend PMGKAY for another six months as well.
Government needs to have a balance between both Welfare schemes for the poor and increasing investment in other sectors of national importance as a nation cannot build with a Human capital which is deprived of proper food and nutrition.