One Nation One Ration Card' Scheme

In News
Recently, the Supreme court observed that all states must implement the One Nation One Ration Card'
scheme.

The Supreme court had asked the government to detail its schemes to provide food to migrant
workers hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Scheme

It was rolledout by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distr1bution in 2019in'4
states on apilot basis.
Atm Toensure hassle-free delivery of subsidized food grains to all migratory beneficiaries
anywhere in the country through nation-wide portability under National Food Security Act
(NFSA).
To empower all National Food Security Act migrant beneficiaries to access foodgrains from
any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choiçe anywhere in the country by using their
samelex1stingration card with biometric authentication.
Acard bearing 10 digit number will be issued to the complaint state's BPLcard
holders which will be linked to AADHAR database,
Beneficiaries can lift their entitled foodgrains from any electronic point of sale
(ePoS) enabled FPS in the country through portability.

This scheme will be instrumental in the welfare of migrant workers.

Present Status

As of Jarnuary 2020, a total of 12States were seamlessly integrated under a single

ONORC cluster at the national levet.
Despite the multitude of COVID-19 related hallenges in the past year, a total of 32
States/UTs covering around 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries, ie. 86% NFSA populat1on in
the country, were swiftly brought under the ONORC plan by December 2020.
The integration of the remaining four States/UT of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West
Bengalis expected tobe achieved, depending upon the technical readiness of these
States to implement the portability of ration cards.
The Supreme Court had recently pulled up the West Bengal government for delay in
implementation of the ONORC plan in the State.
Benefits

Huge Internal Migration: According to the 2011 census, there are 45 crore internal migrants who
accounted for 37% of the population.
Prevent Duplication and Double Benefits: It will help in reducing the number of dual ration
cardholders.
It will be in sync with the motto of Minimum Government Maximum Governanc
Help in understanding migration pattern: The centralised FRP shop data may be used to
formulate policies on intra- and inter-state migration
Better efficiency of Food Distribution Schemes: As per the reply to an RTI, Over 40,000 tonnes
of food grains, including wheat and-rice, have rotted in the last six years. With ONORCthose left
out due to migration can take that food.
Less Corruption and Exploitation: Different newS articles have reported rampant corruptionand
exploitation for getting BPL cards by migrants in other states. It willreduce
 will give the deprived people the choice
Empowering BPL Card Holdors: ONORC to
Reduceand
corrupt well Discrimination: t will reduce the role of social identities like caste. classchosandg
Social functioning FRP shops
gender and power relations in availing the PDS facility by women and other disadvantaged da
Help towards fulfilling SDG 2target of ending hunger by 2030: in the 2020 Global Hunger
Index, Indiaranks 94th out of the 107 countries.
Nutritional Security: With cheap food grain available to migrants there are chances of more
expenditure towards fruits and vegetables.

Criticism/Challenges

Exclusion Errors: As theONORC is AADHAR linked there are chances of exclusionof

people living in remote areas especially scheduled tribes
As per the 2019 state of AADHAR survey', 95 per cent of the adults in the country
AADHAR. have
It means the rest 5% may suffer from hunger due to non availability of
AADHAR.
Operational Challenges: Internet penetration is stillless in India for the
ONORC. smooth functioning of
Changes in Fingerprints have also been reported both due
constant wear and work-related wear and tear to genetics and due to
Logistics lssue: There is aquota allocated toespecially in case of labourers
every state for the purchase of food grains
from FCI.
Constant migration may disturb that
At places of emigration, food procurement pattern.
grain may get wasted.
While the places where immigration
Split Families: Many migrants is dominant may face a PDS
food
will be arequirement to issue leave their spouses and parents back home. crunch.
cards in parts. Hence there
Also there is a lack of
Domicile based Social Sector comprehensive data on migrants and their
state run social sector Schemes: There may be tensions over families.
schemes due to Common Ration competition for
availing such schemes. Card which is at present
basis for
Conclusion and Way Forward
To meet Logistic Challenges
and optimise the States
Creation of dedicated ONORC Procurement:
e-platform based on Artificial
used to predict and issue the cards
Use of railways data: As to migrants. Intelligence: It may be
shown in the Economic Survey, the
migration may be taken up from IRCTC. preliminary data regarding
Unorganised Sector Social Security Act 2008:
documentation of It has provisions regard1ng
To Handle Operational unorganised informal sector workers at welfare boards
Challenges:
Impetus to BharatNet
Deeper Internet
To eliminate ExclusionPenetration should be promoted
Errors:
Constant monitoring and
Social Auditing may weedempowerment of Village Panchayats at
out any inclusion error and least in the initial phase
recommending the names. help in reducing exclusion
The ONORC is just the first step error by
pave the way for interstate of ensuring mass welfare. Its successful
portability of Integrated
Meals. immunisation, health care implementation may
Child Development Services,
In the long run, PDS may be and other facilities for poor migrant households. Mid-Day
replaced by a
better compliancewith World Trade Organisation food cOupon system or direct
Rules benefit transfer for
Introductinn

The implementation of nation-wide portability

Ration
of ration cards through "One Nation One
(ONORC) plan", is an ambitious endeavor of
Card
Department of Food & Public Distribution,
the
Government of India to empower about 81
Crore
[Link] includes ensuring food security
while
for migrants as well. Through this facility,his/her
a migrant beneficiary is enabled to get
ration through portability in the destinationhome
State/UT, at the same time, the family back
allowed to get their part of the entitled
is also
ration to support itself. The usage of portability
can be seasonal or long-term.
Owing to the defined coverage of beneficiaries
under the National Food Security Act (NFSA),
2013 in each States/UT, it is difficult for migrant
beneficiaries to get a new ration card issued. And
introduces
if they are able to get one issued, it
the 'duplicity' of ration cards/beneficiaries in the
country's Targeted Public Distribution System
(TPDS), thereby potentially depriving many other
ONE NATION, ONE RATIONCARD
 Chapter 2

TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN
The foundations of this transformational
initiative were laid by the earlier efforts of the
current central government in association with
allStates/UTs for end-to-endcomputerisation of
the TPDSin the [Link] it is mainlydependent
on the availability of operating electronic Point
of Sale (ePoS) devices at the FPSs coupled with
biometric (fingerprint/RIS) scanners conforming
to UIDAI norms and Aadhaar seeding of
beneficiaries with their ration cards.
In the backend, the States/UTs ePoS servers are
supportedbyacentralrepository/system setupby
the Department of Food & Public Distribution for
seamlessexchange ofration cards/beneficiaries'
information and acts as a gateway to check the
duplicity of ration cards/beneficiaries in and
across States/UTS through acontinuous Aadhaar
based de- duplication process.
Operationally, the migrant beneficiaries desirous
of receiving their foodgrains through
portability,
5 ONE NATION, ONE
 CONSTRAINTS ADDRESSED BY ONE NATION ONE RATION CARD
PROBLEM STUATION RESOLUTION
Doelclary NO NEED TO
RE-APPLY NEW SURRENDER
RationCard tagged to a particular FPS RATION CAP
partlcuar Falr ORation card holders avail entitlements from tagged FPS only NO NEED TO REGISTER
FCR
ODependent on the whims-and-fancies of the FPS dealer PORTABILITY
(GS)
NO PAPER-WORK

Migration = Loss of Food Security USE EXISTINGISAME RATION

D Migrant beneficiaries lose access to subsidised CARD NUMBER or AADHAAR
OForced to purchase from open
foodgrains
market at inflated prices JUST WALK-IN TO ANY FPS
OVery purpose of 'Food Security' under
NFSA is not fulfilled WITH E-POS

Difficult to obtain New Ration Card AUTHENTICATE ON E-POS

WITH AADHAAR BIOMETRIC
OCumbersome to apply
new
O 5-6 months to complete ration card in a new place, r
ODependency on various formalities and process
RECEIVE PART OR FULL
ENTITLEMENTS
OLeads to duplicity of rationsupporting documents/proofs
card/beneficiary FAMILY MEMBERS CAN AL SO
ACCESS IN NATIVE PLACE

Besides serving migrants, this

flexibility to alll NESA system provides
foodgrains from any beneficiaries to
FPS of choice, lift their
potentially reduces the whims Thus, it
FPS dealers and and fancies of
encOurage a sense of healthy
competition among them to better
beneficiaries. serve
 may simply walk-in to any ePoS enabled FPst of
choice in the ONORC enabled States/UTs and
quote or present either their ration card number
or seeded Aadhaar number to access their
entitlemnents after biometricauthentication on a
ePoS device.

Salient features of One Nation One Ration Card

Acompletely technolozydriven Intltiveempowering mirant to be sel

reliant for their fo0d security in trngparent manner
No eed to eary orgaal rtloaton d or Asdhaarcard A copy of efthero
the two ls acceptable piput e e wo unber to the PS dealer
3. Entitlementy from io loon thePeS deviee of
chosen PS
4. LIn the oodgrains t t d4er cablhhigtdentity
Aadhaar based uthenitenion o eSAportability)[Link]
 'MERA RATION' MOBILE APP

EMPOWERING MIGRANTS FOR ONE NATION

ONE RATION CARD

MERARATION
MObile APplicacon or One Nation One Ration Card

IKnow youI Nearby Ration

Regtiarion nitlement Shops Seeding
Nation
Ration Card,

ONORC y Elhgibliry Suogon

Mate Ttanscine Crtoria

matlcsCentre [Link]

The Department of Food & Public Distribution

in association with NIC has launched a Mobile
Application "MERA RATION" (HRT ZIRH) for the
benefit ofNFSAbeneficiaries,particularly migrant
beneficiaries totake maximum advantage of the
One NationOne Ration Card(ONORC) plan.
The salient features of the App which can be
easily accessed by beneficiaries using either their
Ration Card number or Aadhaar number include
the following:
 Registration of migrant NFSA My transactions - The
beneficiaries - An optional feature for past
information
transactions done on the
NFSA beneficiaries to register their card are available like a passbook raion
on the
migration details. This information helps App
the States' in advance planning and
provisioning of foodgrains under ONORC
for those beneficiaries

Know your entitlement - Migrant NFSA Eligibility criteria - The feature enables
beneficiaries as well as their families back the beneficiaries toO check their eligibility
home can easily know their available
status for ration card portability.
entitlements

Locate nearby Fair Price Shops - The ONORC States

GPS enabled feature is provided to Through this feature,
assist the App provides the list of all States/UTS
the migrant beneficiaries to identify
and under ONORC
locate the closest Fair Price Shop when in
a new State/ district/ location and
also get
to know whether the shop is
open or
closed at the moment.

Aadhaar seeding - Through this feature

the status of Aadhaar seeding with ration
Suggestion/Feedback - An option for
beneficiaries & stakeholders to share their
card can be checked instantly. suggestions and feedback with the
Government.

Currently, the 'Mera Ration' (HT RIRH) mobile

application is available in 12 languages, namely
English, Hindi, Kannada, Odiya, Gujarati, Punjabi,
Telugu, Malayalam, Marathiand Tamil, Urdu and
Bangla,andcan be easilydownloaded fromGoogle
Play Store. Going forward, the App may also be
made available in few more regional languages
and shall be enriched with more features and
functionalities to improve its utility and for
maximum benefit of migrant NFSA beneficiaries.
ONE NATION, ONE RATION CARD