What has our government done to provide food security to the poor? Discuss any two schemes launched by the government.

Provision of food security to the poor by our government: Availability of food grains at the security system has been ensured by the government through the establishment of fair price shops and also the subsidy distribution through the PDS card system.

There are two schemes launched by the government:

(i) Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS): Under this system in 1700 blocks of a country, it was targeted to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas. The price which was determined for wheat and rice was Rs. 2.80 and Rs. 3.77 per kg respectively. This was introduced in 1992.

(ii) (ii) Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAS): The scheme was introduced in 2000, and is meant for the poorest section. It was decided to give 35 kg of food grains every month to this section of the society. The price of wheat and rice was Rs. 2.00 and Rs. 3.00 per kg. respectively. The scheme has been further expanded twice to additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and in August 2004. With this increase, 2 crore families have been covered under this scheme.