Biggest Free Food Program Hobbled by India’s Dated Census Data
The government relies on old figures to shape budgets and policies.
People line up to receive rations in a village on the outskirts of Kolkata.
Photographer: Rupak De Chowdhuri/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Outside a small warehouse in Matlong, a sleepy village in eastern India, dozens of families line up each morning clutching ration cards. A shopkeeper beckons them into the mud-walled storeroom, where he weighs giant sacks of grains and checks eligibility for government handouts. A thin layer of fallen rice covers the floor.
This scene in the state of Jharkhand is a familiar one across India, home to the world’s largest free food program. Over the decades, the South Asian nation has expanded welfare benefits to curb extreme poverty, weaving a basic safety net for those living on the fringes of society.