Endline Assessment of DBT Pilots in TPDS: Some Success and Few Issues

As part of the Government of India’s pilots of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), MSC conducted three progress assessments. The assessments were conducted as follows: 1. Baseline: August 2015; 2. Mid-line assessment October 2015; and 3. Final in January 2016.

It was clear that the progress was chequered and a number of areas need to be streamlined before the pilot could be scaled up and implemented elsewhere. Our final assessment once again shows mixed results across the key indicators; 1) beneficiary awareness; 2) access to banking; 3) use of subsidy amount; 4) access to markets; 5) subsidy sufficiency; 6) grievance redressal.

As and when DBT in TPDS is to be scaled up, the following should be looked into: 1) DBT amount to be market linked; 2) access to markets and banking is ensured; 3) intimation to beneficiaries of subsidy transfer; 4) DBT to female account holders to avoid diversions.