DPhil Mihika Chatterjee Publishes Article on Food Security in Indian District in Economic and Political Weekly
First-year DPhil student Mihika Chatterjee has had an article on the public distribution system in a district of Odisha in eastern India published in Economic and Political Weekly, India's premier journal.
'An Improved PDS in a "Reviving" State: Food Security in Koraput, Odisha' was published in Economic and Political Weekly XLIX (8): 48-59.
The public distribution system in India is widely criticised for being ridden with chronic corruption and failing to deliver benefits in a systematic manner.
Using a sample of 793 households in the district of Koraput in Odisha, the article reviews the performance of the PDS in the district and highlights three important points: first, distribution of foodgrains, specifically rice, through the PDS has undergone vast improvements in the past five years; second, while the PDS is fairly inclusive in the district, households excluded are massively deprived, supporting the need for an expansion of coverage; and third, access to grains is fundamentally important in a region where the primary source of livelihood is a combination of subsistence agriculture and casual labour, and where child under-nutrition is rampant.
The article draws on the work Mihika carried out for her MPhil in Development Studies thesis.