In late March 2013, tens of residents stood outside a ration shop in Benachapra village, West Medinipur, West Bengal, to collect their weekly food allocation. Field reporting found that nobody in the line knew the precise amount to which they were entitled, and they consequently did not receive it. The queue was presented as a local example of irregularity and weak oversight in India's Public Distribution System.
Order alone cannot make distribution fair when recipients do not know what they have a right to receive. What was missing was not only grain but information with which to test the system. People held a place in line without holding the standard by which the counter should serve them.