India continues to be a land of extremes. Extreme poverty persists besides new-found opulence and riches. Starvation deaths are still reported, but not because of lack of foodgrain availability. Rather, due to paucity of purchasing power.

For the last 50 years, India's foodgrain production had remained stagnant. But the poorer have been getting richer and the nutrient intake of large number of people has improved. And the public distribution system has been one of the harbingers of this change.

On almost all physical counts, the performance of the PDS has remained good. It has made remarkable growth in the quantum of foodgrains distributed under its aegis. The volume of grains distributed as a percentage of total production has also been on a sustained upward curve.

However, food distribution under PDS as a percentage of production and procurement has been fluctuating and continues to be a problem area. This has led to huge pile up in foodgrains leading to wastage and rotting grains at FCI warehouses – and even outside in the open.

Reasons aside, the accessibility to foodgrains at affordable prices by the Indian poor has been growing. Not just the statistical availability. This seems to have resulted in major changes in the food intake in the country's population. Although much more remains to be done, large segments of India's poor seems be relatively better off.

The PDS has often been the whipping boy of both the politicians and the public. Much of it deservedly so. But some of it seems to be changing, throwing up the need to strengthen and deepen the PDS. India's poor still have a lot to hope for.

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