Supreme Court’s Ruling on ONORC System for Migrant Workers

Supreme Court’s Ruling on ONORC System for Migrant Workers

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Policies and interventions

In news

• Recently, the Supreme Court directed all states and Union Territories (UT) to implement the One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC) system by 31st July 2021.
• Introducing ONORC aims at reforming the PDS, which faces challenges like inefficiency and leakages.
• ONORC was launched in August, 2019.
• Aim:
  • Enabling migrant labourers covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to access food at any fair price shop with his or her ration card in any part of the country.
• Technology Used:
  • The system identifies a beneficiary through biometric authentication on electronic Point of Sale devices at fair price shops.
  • The system runs with the support of two portals – Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) and Annavitran.
  • The Annavitaran portal maintains a record of intra-state transactions and the IM-PDS portal records the inter-state transactions.

About ONORC Progress

• Till date, 32 states and UTs have joined the ONORC, covering about 69 crore NFSA beneficiaries.
• Four states yet to join the scheme – Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal.

Benefits of ONORC

• The beneficiaries from one state can get their share of rations in other states 
• The beneficiaries will have the opportunity to opt for the dealer of their choice.
• It will be particularly beneficial for women and other disadvantaged groups
• This will help achieve the target set under SDG 2 – Ending hunger by 2030