Assessing the Impact of the Public Distribution System on Household Poverty and Nutritional Security in Bahraich District, Uttar Pradesh

Tabrez Khan; Suneet Kumar Singh

Assessing the Impact of the Public Distribution System on Household Poverty and Nutritional Security in Bahraich District, Uttar Pradesh

Author(s)	Tabrez Khan, Dr. Suneet Kumar Singh
Country	India
Abstract	India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is simultaneously a food-security instrument, an implicit income transfer and an administrative platform for reaching vulnerable households. This study examines what recent secondary evidence implies for poor households in Uttar Pradesh, with particular reference to Bahraich, a predominantly rural and socio-economically deprived district. A descriptive secondary-data design was used. Evidence was triangulated from the Census of India, National Family Health Survey-based District Nutrition Profile, NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index, Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES), National Food Security Portal, programme evaluations and peer-reviewed literature. Percentage-point changes, relative changes and state-national consumption gaps were calculated where comparable observations were available. Bahraich’s multidimensional poverty headcount declined from 71.85% in 2015–2016 to 54.44% in 2019–2021, while the MPI value declined from 0.391 to 0.285. Child stunting fell from 65% to 52% and underweight from 44% to 38%, but wasting remained 14% and child anaemia remained extremely high, declining only from 74% to 72%. Uttar Pradesh’s rural monthly per-capita consumption expenditure rose from ₹3,191 in 2022–2023 to ₹3,481 in 2023–2024, yet remained 15.6% below the national rural average. Current administrative data show a very large PDS platform in Uttar Pradesh, with more than 36.3 million ration cards. The combined evidence suggests that the PDS is indispensable for protecting staple consumption and household purchasing power, but cereal security alone does not generate nutritional resilience. A nutrition-sensitive, portable and exclusion-resistant PDS, supported by robust grievance redressal and district-level monitoring, is required in high-deprivation districts such as Bahraich.
Keywords	Public Distribution System; food security; multidimensional poverty; nutrition; Bahraich; Uttar Pradesh; secondary data.
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-08-13

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Assessing the Impact of the Public Distribution System on Household Poverty and Nutritional Security in Bahraich District, Uttar Pradesh

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