Universal PDS
Topic: Agricultural Marketing, MSP, Buffer Stocks and PDS · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A universal PDS gives subsidised grain to all households. It does not pick out only the poor by income. Because no one is screened out, it has fewer exclusion errors (poor families wrongly left out). But it costs the government more, and some better-off households also benefit, which is an inclusion error.
Example
Tamil Nadu runs a universal PDS: every household can draw grain from fair price shops. By contrast, NFSA covers up to 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population.
Don't confuse with
- Targeted PDS (1997): targeted PDS covers only identified poor households, such as priority and AAY households. It costs less but risks leaving out needy families.
Related concepts
- Public distribution system
- Fair price shop
- Central issue price
- Targeted PDS
- Leakages in PDS
- Ration card portability
- Food security
- Nutrition security
- Hidden hunger
- Biofortification