-The Telegraph Many families depend on two entitlements for survival: social security pensions and rations from the public distribution system Particularly vulnerable tribal groups, earlier known as primitive tribal groups, are the sort of people you may never meet unless you take the trouble to look for them. In Jharkhand, they live in small hamlets scattered over the nooks and crannies of the state’s undulating forests. Without a purpose and some local...

-TheWire.in "The central government’s contribution to old-age pensions...has stagnated at just Rs 200 per month since 2006. This is unfair." New Delhi: Sixty economists from across the country have written to finance minister Arun Jaitley, asking him to ensure that social security pensions and maternity benefits get adequate attention in the Union Budget 2019. They argue that they had made a similar “modest” request before the 2018 Budget, but it went unheeded. The...

-The Hindu A forum representing single women has prepared a charter of demands pitching for enhanced budgetary allocation so that schemes such as monthly pension and benefits for care-givers can be framed for them. Their call comes at a time five States prepare to vote during Assembly elections and when there are nearly six months left for general elections. The National Forum for Single Women’s Rights (NFSWR) has also demanded that the...

-Press release by Right to Food Campaign dated 28th September, 2018 17 lakh elderly, widows and differently-abled persons in Jharkhand who qualify for social security pensions, do not receive their entitlement. One important reason is that pension coverage in Jharkhand is not universal. Even those who do receive pensions face chronic selection errors and administrative glitches. In 2016-17, 3 lakh pensioners were deleted as “fake”, though many genuine persons, whose pension...

  There is a list available with the Right to Food Campaign (http://www.righttofoodcampaign.in) – a decentralised network of civil society activists and experts who are working together voluntarily for ensuring food and nutrition security – which shows that 56 persons died between May, 2015 and March, 2018 on account of hunger and starvation despite India having passed the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013. The RTF campaign has compiled the...