Weakening Welfare

Weakening Welfare is a powerful argument for expanding and strengthening the public distribution system (PDS) in a country where hunger poverty and malnutrition are as endemic as in India. The reigning orthodoxy of structural adjustment however preaches exactly the opposite. This book is a sharp indictment of food policies of the liberalization era. It demonstrates how these policies will worsen food and nutrition security among the vast majority of the Indian people. Looking at the effects of targeting of food subsidies on other countries it marshals arguments in favour of making PDS universal. There is little doubt that PDS as it functions today has failed by and large to provide nutritional support to the people and requires genuine reform. The exception is Kerala the only state in India where PDS has been near universal. This book discusses alternative proposals for making PDS an effective measure of food security. Written in a lucid non-technical style the book presents a wealth of recent data that will be as handy for the expert as for the interested layperson.