Discontinuation of DBT

The Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand welcomes the Jharkhand government’s decision to discontinue the direct benefit transfer (DBT) for food subsidy experiment in Nagri. It is unfortunate, however, that it took almost a year of popular protests for the government to arrive at this decision.

The DBT pilot caused enormous hardship to the people of Nagri, especially vulnerable groups such as single women and the elderly. Protests began within days of the experiment being launched in early October 2017. In February 2018, a field survey found that 97% of respondents in Nagri were opposed to DBT. Thousands of people walked from Nagri to the Governor’s House in Ranchi on 26 February to demand the reinstatement of the old public distribution system (PDS). In April, the state government’s own social audit confirmed the results of the February survey. All but two gram sabhas in Nagri also passed resolutions against DBT. It is a mystery why it took another four months after that for the state government to decide to discontinue the experiment.