Research as if People Matter

First published in the Economic & Political Weekly

Since the implementation of reforms enacted by the National Food Security Act 2013, the public distribution system provides food security to a larger number of people than before, and has less leakages overall in six of the poorer states of India. The methods and results of a people-centred six-state survey are presented in brief.

“First of all, thank you everybody for the hard work and goodwill,” economist Jean Drèze said with a playful smile. The room full of student volunteers, who joined the National Food Security Act (NFSA) Survey 2016 (henceforth the survey) for nothing less than “Hard Work, No Pay,” chuckled and laughed. Drèze continued, “We are very impressed with all the teams … I think the survey was really a success!” Drèze had just commenced the debriefing session that was held in Ranchi,¹ marking the end of the survey. Drèze, with fellow economist Reetika Khera, initiated the survey to understand the progress in implementation of reforms to the public distribution system (PDS) after the enactment of the NFSA 2013.

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