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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | To be heard at Delhi, some spadework in Rajasthan-Sweta Dutta

To be heard at Delhi, some spadework in Rajasthan-Sweta Dutta

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published Published on Mar 4, 2013   modified Modified on Mar 4, 2013
-The Indian Express

Samelia: Narayan Singh listens with rapt attention as social activist Shankar Singh urges villagers in remote Samelia in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district to fight for their rights. Convinced that his voice would count, Narayan signs up to go to Jantar Mantar in Delhi to protest with 25,000 villagers, urban poor, rag pickers, daily-wage labourers to press for universalisation and enhancement of old-age pension.

The issue concerns countless elderly poor who have been left out of the pension bracket due to erroneous methods of determining BPL eligibility and forced to fend for themselves. Khimmi Devi of Kesarpura village in Bhim, for instance, applied for old-age pension twice to no avail. Nearly 70 and ailing, she is forced to work, digging and paving a road in her village under MNREGA.

It’s to get Khimmi and such people their due that more than 100 social organisations have come together to form ‘Pension Parishad’ which will organise protests at Jantar Mantar between March 4 and 8. The Parishad plans to get as many as 25,000 people from across India, most of them from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, to join the protest, spearheaded by social activist and National Advisory Council (NAC) member Aruna Roy.

“We have tried to involve villagers not just by educating them about the existing pension schemes and our demands but by making them join the crusade. We were struggling for funds to bring together such a huge representation and then we decided to ask for contributions from villagers and other participants,” Shankar Singh, a founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), told The Indian Express.

In Rajsamand, everyone convinced of the need for the protest paid Rs 20 and the sum put together in each village will help send their representative to Jantar Mantar.

Roy, meanwhile, has apprised NAC chairperson Sonia Gandhi of the issue. “For the elderly in India there is nothing they can do in the absence of basic income support. This category of elderly people is amongst the most vulnerable, living in a situation of complete destitution.... The government’s social security pension — pathetically low as it is at Rs 200 per month — still provides a framework that could be used to provide some dignity and support to beneficiary families,” Roy wrote to Sonia.

“However, this is restricted to BPL families. For the elderly, BPL category makes no sense. Even if they had the capacity to earn when they were younger, their physical condition in old age makes it impossible to support themselves. There is no justification for not ensuring the entire unorganised sector — 94 per cent of our workforce — be assured of some form of income in their old age.”

The Indian Express, 4 March, 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/to-be-heard-at-delhi-some-spadework-in-rajasthan/1082624/


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