One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme is a national ration card scheme that will enable migrant workers and their families to access the public distribution system (PDS) benefits from any fair price shops across the country.
The scheme has been implemented by the Department for the nation-wide portability of ration cards under National Food Security Act (NFSA).
It will help in providing grains, rice and wheat flour at subsidised rates for the economically weaker section of the nation.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement of this scheme for the poor was in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic on May 16th during the last phase of the Prime Minister’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, which included stimulus funds of ₹20 lakh crore.
This facility was started as an inter-state portability of ration cards in 4 states w.e.f. August 2019. As on June 2022, all 36 states/UTs have implemented the scheme.
Under the scheme, the existing ration cards will be turned as one nation, one ration card. It will be a universal ration card allotted to each beneficiary registered under NFSA.
Using the ONORC, a beneficiary who migrates from one place to another can buy subsidised food grains from the fair price shop located in the destination city, regardless of the origin of the beneficiaries.
The beneficiary will be identified through biometric authentication and electronic Point of Sale (ePOS) devices plus it will be seeded with Aadhaar card number. These devices will be installed at each fare price shop.
Benefits: It will bring more transparency and efficiency in the distribution of food grains.
It will improve the mechanism to identify fake/duplicate ration cards and provide the option to public distribution system beneficiaries to lift their entitled food grains from the fair price shops of their choice at the national level.
The scheme will ensure food security of migrant labourers who move to other states to seek better job opportunities.
This will help achieve the target set under Sustainable Development Goals 2 of ending hunger by 2030.
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