Antyodaya Anna Yojana

Background and evolution

The scheme was expanded several times in the early 2000s, first in 2003 and again in 2004 and 2005, adding about 50 lakh households each time, with the later expansions targeting households headed by widows, the terminally ill, people with disabilities and the elderly without support, as well as primitive tribal groups. These expansions reflected growing recognition of specific vulnerabilities beyond income poverty.

In 1997 India moved from a universal public distribution system to a Targeted PDS that gave subsidised grain mainly to households below the poverty line. But even among BPL families, the poorest, such as landless labourers, widows, the elderly without support and those with disabilities, often could not afford even subsidised grain or were left out of lists. "Antyodaya", a word associated with Gandhian thought meaning the rise of the last person, captures the scheme's purpose: to reach the very bottom.

AAY created a special category within the PDS with deeper subsidies and a fixed household entitlement. When the NFSA was passed in 2013, AAY households retained their 35 kg entitlement, while other eligible households receive 5 kg per person. This page focuses on AAY as an example of targeting the ultra-poor, the challenges of identifying such households, and why a household-based entitlement still matters, while the broader legal framework is covered on the NFSA page.