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What is Antyodaya Anna Yojana?

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) is a scheme sponsored by the Government of India. With the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme government deliver highly invested food to millions of the poorest families.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme was launched by Atal Bihari and continued by Shree Narendra Modi. This scheme is supervised by the Food Ministry of India. With Antyodaya Anna’s scheme, poor families will get grains at a small price.

A National Sample Survey Exercise indicated that about 5% of the total residents in India sleep without two fair meals a day. The Public Distribution System (PDS) was later updated to the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) aimed at supplying food and grains to the needy.

To make the TPDS more useful and more focussed on the right category of population, the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) was launched in December 2000. AAY was a step towards approaching the aim of reducing hunger among the poorest segments of the BPL population.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana Features:

  • AAY had to first identify one crore of the poor families from amongst the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families covered under the TPDS within the states
  • Under this scheme, highly subsidized grains are supplied at the rate of Rs. 2 per kg for wheat, Rs. 3 per kg for rice and Rs.1 for coarse grains
  • Expenses required for distribution, transportation, and margins of dealers are handled by the States/ UTs
  • The selected families are allowed to get 35kg of food grains per month
  • The number of poor households has been increased to 2.5 crores and also includes families including terminally ill peoples, widows, disabled persons, persons aged 60 years and above, individuals with no means of subsistence.
  • The states determine the poor families and give them ration cards to ensure the advantages of the scheme reach the right people

Antyodaya Anna Yojana Eligibility:

To identify the families that are eligible for the benefits of the scheme, specified guidelines criteria are as follows-

  • Agriculture laborers without lands, marginal farmers, rural artisans or craftsmen, like weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, tanners, slum dwellers
  • Daily wage earners in the informal sector like cobblers, rag pickers, snake charmers, porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, destitute
  • Other similar types of laborers in both rural and urban areas
  • Families that are captained by terminally ill persons/ disabled persons/ persons aged 60 years or more/ widows with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
  • Persons who are terminally ill or widows or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
  • All tribal households are elementary

Required Documents:

The documents required for applying to Antyodaya Anna Yojana are as follows-

  • BPL certificate
  • Income Certificate
  • Deletion certificate or Affidavit saying that the applicant does not hold any Ration card previously

Expansion of Antyodaya Anna Yojana:

The AAY Scheme was extended to cover 2.50 crore poor household families as follows-

  • The AAY Scheme was extended in 2003- 04 by counting 50 lakh BPL household families containing widows, terminally ill persons, disabled persons, persons aged 60 years or more with no fixed income means or social support
  • After this extension, about 1.5 crores (i.e. 23% of BPL) families were covered under the AAY
  • As announced in the Union Budget 2004-05, the AAY was further expanded by another 50 lakh BPL families by including, inter alia, all households at the risk of hunger
  • Order to this effect was issued on 3rd August 2004

Antyodaya Anna Yojana Beneficiaries:

Beneficiaries criteria for the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) are as follows-

Rural Areas Beneficiaries:

  • Families with an annual income up to Rs.15000 are eligible for Antyodaya Anna Yojana
  • Old age pensioners
  • Small and marginal farmers
  • Landless agricultural laborers
  • Physically handicapped persons
  • Destitute widows
  • Rural artisans or craftsmen such as potters, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and slum dwellers

Urban Areas Beneficiaries:

  • Family annual income below Rs.15000 will get benefit under this scheme
  • People living in slums
  • Daily wagers
  • Rickshaw-pullers
  • Porters are eligible for the AAY scheme
  • Fruit and flowers sellers on pavements
  • Domestic servants
  • Construction workers can apply for these benefits
  • Households headed by widows, disabled persons, persons aged 60 years or more
  • Individuals with no assured means of subsistence
  • Individuals with no societal support will get the benefit AAY
  • Snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers are also getting benefit from this scheme

Identification of Beneficiaries:

The State Government or UT administrations carry the identification process of AAY families under the Antyodaya Yojana Scheme. Beneficiaries are determined from the number of BPL families within the state.

Tentative List of Beneficiary – Rural, Urban Area:

Step 1: The State Government and UT, in turn, circulate this number among the various districts and further to Panchayat and the municipality.

Step 2: District Collectors will start the process of identification of the beneficiary after giving it wide publicity.

Step 3: At the Block level, each Panchayat is allocated to an Officer of Revenue.

Step 4: Office of Revenue will schedule a tentative list of the poorest of the poor keeping in view the overall families allotted to the Panchayat.

Step 5:  Once the tentative list for a Panchayat is ready, a meeting of the Gram Sabha will be held.

Step 6: Once the list is approved by the Gram Sabha and it will be consolidated at the Block level and then at the District level. The beneficiary list will be approved by the state government.

Step 7: The designation of the beneficiary will be marked by the urban local bodies Chief Executive.

Step 8: The Preliminary list of beneficiaries may be given wide advertising and also shown at the Ward Level inviting objections. After going in through the process, the compressed list for the Urban Local Body and its approval was obtained.

Issue of Antyodaya Ration Card:

After the identification of beneficiaries (AAY family), AAY ration cards will be issued to the Antyodaya families by the specified authority. The ration card will contain details regarding the Antyodaya family and the scale of the ration.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana Ration Card Color:

As per the policies of the AAY scheme, all the identified families will be provided with a ration card that will be different from the standard ration pass. The color of the AAY ration card will be green. All families, living in rural, semi-urban, or urban areas will be provided with a green ration pass, if they are enlisted under this scheme.

For detailed information check out the Antyodaya Anna Yojana PDF.
Check out the Antyodaya Anna Yojana Helpline Number: 0144- 2338000.

Here, we cover a small piece of information about the Antyodaya Anna Scheme. For the application process and to know more about the AAY and other schemes you can visit the Antyodaya Anna Yojana official website. Stay tuned to get notified about the other Government schemes.