This article studies the effectiveness of India's Public Distribution System (PDS) as a food security intervention, using field survey data collected by the author in Rajasthan. Utilisation is low, and many households purchase wheat from the market at higher prices before exhausting PDS quotas. This 'puzzle of under-purchase' is analysed by extending the dual-pricing model to account for supply-side (for example, diversion) and demand-side (for example, transaction costs) constraints. Primary and secondary data as well as field observations suggest that under-purchase is mainly due to supply constraints. I also find that the PDS affects the composition (away from more nutritious 'coarse cereals'), rather than level, of cereal consumption.

This study presents an analysis of inter-district variations in murder rates in India in 1981. Three significant patterns emerge. First, murder rates in India bear no significant relation with urbanization or poverty. Second, there is a negative association between literacy and criminal violence. Third, murder rates in India are highly correlated with the female-male ratio in the population: districts with higher female-male ratios have lower murder rates. Alternative hypotheses about the causal relationships underlying this connection between sex ratios and murder rates are scrutinized. One plausible explanation is that low female-male ratios and high murder rates are joint symptoms of a patriarchal environment. This study also suggests that gender relations, in general, have a crucial bearing on criminal violence. Copyright 2000 by The Population Council, Inc..

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