‘Before dying of hunger, meet your ration dealer,’ says a poster outside a PDS shop in Jharkhand

A PDS dealer in Jharkhand has put up a strange poster outside his shop. The poster states that any (ration) card holder or villager should contact this dealer before dying of hunger.Amid reports of people dying of starvation in Jharkhand, this poster exposes the real state of the Public Distribution System (PDS) of the state. The poster outside a PDS Dealer’s shop in Tantnagar Block, West Signbhum, reads, “koi bhi card dhari ya anya gramin bhook se marne se pehle, apne dealer se bhet kare” (any card holder or villager can meet the dealer before dying of starvation).

Kavita Srivastava, a human rights activist, has shared this poster on Twitter. "Any cardholder or any villager can meet their dealer before Dying of Hunger"- Fulchand Biruty, your dealer. Government’s response to the 6 deaths due to Aadhar card linkage to PDS.”

In October 2017, the death of Santoshi Kumar due to hunger shook the entire nation. After her death, the grim fact came to light that she was not receiving any ration because her ration card was not linked to Aadhaar. There have been 5 more such deaths in the state since then. The reports have been denied by the ruling BJP government of the state.

In the same manner, in Rae Bareilly, Sakina lost her life due to hunger. Due to non-linking of her finger prints with the ration card, Sakina was not receiving PDS benefits. Sakina’s husband Ishaq claimed that Sakina had been sick for five days. So, she herself was unable to go to the ration dealer and therefore, there was nothing to eat. He pleaded with the dealer to provide him ration but the dealer refused. The dealer reportedly insisted that Ishaq can not receive ration unless Sakina’s fingerprint was recorded in the system.

According to Global Hunger Index report released on October 12, 2017, India’s rank has gone down. In the Global Hunger Index of 119 countries, India is among the 19 countries having the worst conditions. India’s condition is even worse than those of Myanmar and Bangladesh. In 2016, India was at the 97th rank and now it is on the 100th. According to the report, India lags behind North Korea, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.