Awareness level of beneficiaries under the national food security act (NFSA) programme in Odisha

Abstract

The Government of India has enacted the National Food Security Act (NFSA) on September 12, 2013. The NFSA aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of India’s population. The legislation is a landmark, and perhaps the largest food security program in the world. In September, 2013, India passed the National Food Security Act (NFSA), making its food safety net programmes one of the largest in the world. It was satisfactory to learn that all the sample beneficiaries opined that they knew the selection criteria under the Act to get the food grains. It was a matter of great concern that, the rural beneficiaries had negligible awareness about the issue of duplicate cards through online facility. This may reasoned out for lack of cyber or online facilities and knowledge of the rural people. It is a matter of concern that about one-fourth of the beneficiaries had partial knowledge on the inputs of the programme, and mass awareness campaign and sensitization programmes by the stakeholders should be regularly conducted to make them aware about their entitlement of food grains. There was no significant difference (non-significant CR value) among the two samples regarding the awareness of price of commodities given to them. It was a matter of great satisfaction that, almost all the beneficiaries under the rural and urban areas were aware about the prices of commodities supplied to them.