Parliament Question: Delayed Census and NFSA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS. FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1839 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30TH JULY, 2025 DELAYED CENSUS AND NFSA

1839. SHRI BALWANT BASWANT WANKHADE:

DR. AMAR SINGH:

DR. KIRSAN NAMDEO:

SHRI RAMASAHAYAM RAGHURAM REDDY:

Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

be pleased to state:

(a) whether crores of citizens have been kept beyond the ambit of National Food Security Act, 2013 due to delay in the conduction of National Census who are otherwise eligible for the same;

(b) the steps being taken by the Government to expand the coverage of people left out for the reasons of issuance of New Ration Cards;

(c) whether any estimation has been made of the impact of seeding based on the issuance of Ration Cards and renewal, compulsory KYC and document based verification;

(d) the number of Ration Cards cancelled or withheld for their not being linked with AADHAAR or for non-fulfillment of formalities involved, year-wise; and

(e) whether any comprehensive National diet survey is being conducted or is proposed to be conducted in view of the discontinuation of National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau around a decade ago? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA)

(a) & (b): National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 is being successfully implemented in all the States/UTs, aims to supplement the food requirements of upto 75% of the rural and upto 50% of the urban population which at Census 2011 comes to 81.35 crore beneficiaries. Under the NFSA, while Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, which constitute poorest of the poor are entitled to 35 kg offoodgrains, per Household per month, Priority Households (PHH) are entitled to 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month at free of cost.

The Coverage under the Act is substantially high to ensure that all the vulnerable and needy sections of the society get its benefit. The States/UTs have identified only 80.56 crore person, against the intended coverage of 81.35 crore person. Still, there is a scope for identification of 0.79 crore more beneficiaries, by the States/UTs, under the NFSA. Under the joint responsibility of the Centra] and State Government, the responsibility for identification of beneficiaries and issuance of their rationcards rests with the concerned State Government. The Central Government issues advisories to all the States/Union Territories from time to time to identify all eligible and poor persons/ households including vulnerable Sections of the Society for inclusion under the NFSA. States are undertaking updation of their beneficiary database so that ineligible ration cards get deleted and better targeting of rightful beneficiaries is ensured.

Section 9 of the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFS A) provides that the total number of persons to be covered in rural and urban areas of the State shall be calculated on the basis of the population estimates as per the Census of which the relevant figures have been published. At the time of implementation of NFSA, the latest published figures of Census pertaining to the year 2011 was used to determine the coverage of all States/Union Territories (UTs).

Any revision in coverage shall be possible only after the relevant data of next population Census is published

(c) & (d): As an outcome of use of technology in TDPS operations since 2013, i.e digitization of Ration Card/Beneficiary database & Aadhar seeding has led to identification of duplicates, ineligible records, deaths, permanent migration of Beneficiary etc. This has led all States/UTs to able to weed- out approx. 5.87 crore ration cards in order to achieve rightful targeting.

No. of deleted Ration Cards 2013 4,664,645 2014 5,20 1 ,280 2015 5,03 1 ,877 2016 8,426,329 2017 6, 1 3 1 ,774 2018 7,374,65 2019 5,990,446 2020 2,4 1 9,45 1 2021 2,902,794 2022 6,380,274 2023 4, 199,373 Total 58,722,894

(e): Indian Council of Medical Research has recently conducted a comprehensive National Dietary Survey titled ’Survey for Assessment of Markers of Population Health, Activity, Diet and Anthropometry (SAMPADA), collecting detailed individual dietary intake data from about 2 lakh participants from 183 districts across 35 States/UTs (except Manipur).

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