PDS SURVEY, AUGUST 2001

Aim of the survey

As you may know, a petition on the “right to food” has been filed in the Supreme Court, about three months ago. This petition has been filed because many people in India are hungry in spite of the fact that more than 50 million tonnes of food are lying idle the godowns of the Food Corporation of India. The petition asks the Court to direct the government to use this food to ensure that no-one goes hungry.

On 23 July, the Supreme Court ordered all state governments to ensure that all ration shops are open and function properly within a week. The main purpose of this survey is to check whether this order has been implemented.

How to choose the survey villages

We are asking you to survey at least five villages in your area (if you are able to survey more than five, that’s even better).

Please select villages where the public distribution system is not functioning very well. The purpose of this survey is not to find out the PDS situation in an “average” village, but to demonstrate to the court that there are still many villages where ration shops are not functioning properly. That is why you should feel free to select villages where the PDS situation is particularly bad.

How to conduct the survey

In each village, you should fill the “village questionnaire” (one page), after discussions with local residents, including some BPL households.

Then you should find out who are the poorest households in that village, meet them, and help each of these three households to fill the “household questionnaire”. The respondents should sign this questionnaire, which may be used in court as an “affidavit”.

Where/when to send the questionnaires