Parliament Question: Food and Nutritional Security

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION DEPARTMENT OF FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 6147 TO BE ANSWERED ON IsT APRIL, 2026 FOOD AND NUTRITIONAL SECURITY

6147. MD ABUTAHER KHAN:

Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

be pleased to state:

(a): whether the Government has undertaken any recent assessment of food and nutritional security in the country particularly among vulnerable and low-income households and if so, the key findings thereof;

(b): the measures being implemented by the Government to ensure adequate availability, affordability and accessibility of essential food grains and nutritional support across States and Union Territories; and

(c): whether there have been instances of exclusion of eligible beneficiaries from subsidised food distribution under the Public Distribution System due to authentication issues, ration card irregularities or digitisation challenges and if so, the steps taken by the Governme Ilt to address such concerns? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRIMATI NIMUBEN JAYANTIBHAI BAMBHANIYA)

(a) to (c): The Pradhan Nlantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) is being 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 persons. 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 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. As on 01.03.2026, against the intended coverage of 81.35 crore, 79.40 crore beneficiaries are receiving foodgrains free of cost.

Under the joint responsibility of the Central and the State Governments, the responsibility for identification of beneficiaries, within the coverage determined for the State/UT and issuance of their ration cards rest with the concerned States/UTs.

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 PIVIGKAY. States are undertaking updation of their beneficiarydatabase so that bogus ration cards get deleted and better targeting of rightful beneficiaries is ensured. Thus, deletion of ineligible beneficiaries and addition of eligible beneficiaries is a contInuous process.

All States/UTs have been advised vide this Department’s letter dated 24/ 10/2017 that no genuine beneficiary/household shall be denied from receiving entitled quota of subsidized foodgrains due to failure of biometric/Aadhaar authentication due to networldconnectivity/linking related issues, other technical reasons or poor biometrics of the beneficiary.

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