The document summarizes collaborations to address food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia. It describes how a survey found economic crisis and food insecurity during lockdowns. It engaged with Public Distribution Systems and food distribution drives. It details how they mapped PDS shops, built staff capacity, established government contacts, and ensured community access to services. Challenges included lockdowns and changing policies, but enablers included technology, frequent follow-ups, and community partnerships. Results included 399 mapped shops, 50,715 families informed, and 13,113 people accessing COVID schemes. It highlights the story of a woman who accessed rations for her family after learning about her rights. Key learnings included tweaking interventions

1. DELIVERING FOR NUTRITION IN SOUTH ASIA
Implementation Research in the Context of COVID-19
December 2, 2021
Vinita Ajgaonkar
Engaging with the Public Distribution System
Collaborations that Addressed Food
Insecurity during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2. Collaborations that Addressed Food Insecurity
during the COVID-19 Pandemic

3. We collaborate with communities and public health systems to
improve health outcomes
Lessons during the pandemic
THE CONTINUUM
OF CARE
APPROACH
Maternal
Health
Child Health
Adolescent
Health
 Safety
 Gender Equality
 Prevention of
Domestic Violence
• Quantitative survey (April-June 2020):
1567 randomly selected respondents aged 18
years and older from urban vulnerable
communities revealed economic crisis and food
insecurity during the pandemic induced lockdown
• Engagement with the Public Distribution System
initiated as a sustainable alternative along with
collaborative food (cooked and dry) distribution
drives
About SNEHA

4. Collecting information
- Mapping PDS shops
- Collecting relevant
Government orders on
new schemes
Building staff capacity
Establishing contacts
- Dept. of Food and
Civil Supplies
- PDS officers/
Inspectors
- Rationing Controller
Internal liaison across
SNEHA
- Building database of
PDS card holders & Non
card holders
- liaising between
government officials,
PDS shops, community &
NGOs
Ensuring access to
services
- Building capacity of
people on entitlements
- Enabling complaints
- Monitoring access
- Capturing data on
uptake of schemes
Amplifying community
concerns, ensuring redressal
Interventions

5. Challenges Enablers
• Restricted access to target population due to
lockdown
• Apathetic system
• Rapidly changing policy guidelines
• No clear channels of information across the PDS
system – Centre, State, officials, ration shops
• Lack of experience and expertise
• Committed cadre of volunteers
• Investment in technology and timely collection of contact
numbers of target groups – formation of WhatsApp groups
for coordination & troubleshooting
• Frequent and consistent follow up with Dept. of Food & Civil
Supplies and PDS staff at all levels
• Continuous phone based/online meetings with community
members to update on new orders/schemes announced
• Partnership with organisations having experience and
expertise

6. • 399 PDS shops mapped
• 50,715 families received information on PDS
• 1,376 community volunteers trained through 172 trainings
• 80 families received new ration cards
• 3,000 families with no cards helped to access free food grains under emergency PDS schemes
• 13,113 people accessed special COVID-19 schemes related to PDS
• Improved functioning of PDS shops reported by the communities
• Communities able to exercise their right to food security; register complaints with shopkeepers and ration offices
Results

7. The loss of livelihood during the lockdown forced 19 year old P and her daily wager family to move back to their
village. However, the food supply in the village market was very limited, nor were they allowed to use their PDS card
from the city to obtain food from the village PDS shop. Like many households in the village, the circumstances for P’s
family went from dire to desperate as employment and food availability remained scarce.
After attending online sessions on PDS organised by SNEHA, P learnt that holders of the orange PDS card, like her
family, are entitled to special benefits during the lockdown. Equipped with the knowledge of protocol and of her rights,
P approached the PDS shop once again. This time, when she was denied ration, she stood her ground,
informing the shop owner of her card status and how its validity could be verified online, and insisted on
getting her entitlements, till she was finally able to access ration for her family.
Not stopping there, P wrote to the local administrator, who eventually agreed to deliver essential food commodities to
her village. Thanks to her efforts, the village families had food at home on a regular basis.
Putting food on the plate…

8. • Need to tweak existing interventions to respond to emergent community needs
• Need to address food insecurity as the basis for health intervention
• Need for an inter-sectoral approach to bridge the gap between government welfare policies and their implementation
• Need for efforts to generate mass awareness on social protection schemes and to facilitate their access and uptake by
vulnerable communities.
Learnings