The government’s reliance on decade-old data due to a delay in census has resulted in exclusion of millions from the safety net of the National Food Security Act, 2013, and downsized the number of beneficiaries entitled to subsidised foodgrains. RAJU SAJWAN from Jharkhand, HIMANSHU N from Rajasthan and SHAGUN in Delhi report how the country’s poor are coping with hunger without the security of the public distribution system