Elderly expected to survive on Rs. 10 a day

Even as inflation continues to rise with each passing day, millions of elderly people in the country force themselves into manual labour for earning a few extra rupees -- the govt aid hardly enough to make both ends meet, Chetan Chauhan reports. Money matters

Updated on: May 11, 2012, 02:31:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Sadamma is poor, 75 years old, and can barely walk. But as far as the government is concerned, its dole of Rs. 10 should be enough to help her pull through the day.

Sadamma is not alone in this predicament. Even as inflation continues to rise with each passing day, millions of elderly people like her in the country force themselves into manual labour for earning a few extra rupees - the government aid hardly enough to make both ends meet.

An-elderly-woman-takes-a-break-during-a-protest-to-demand-pension-for-elderly-at-Jantar-Mantar-in-New-Delhi-on-Thursday-Pension-Parishad-a-consortium-of-NGOs-and-trade-unions-received-an-unlikely-support-through-the-highest-office-in-India-when-President-Pratibha-Patil-made-a-personal-contribution-of-Rs-15-000-for-the-cause--PTI-PHOTO

The Centre gives Rs. 200 as monthly pension to poor citizens between 60 and 80 years of age, and Rs. 500 to those beyond it. The state adds another Rs. 100 from its kitty.

A bare-footed Sharafat, who hails from the primitive Saharia tribe of Rajasthan, has no words to express his grief. "I have turned into a beggar at the age of 69," says the man, who had imagined a very different scenario for the future during India's freedom struggle. "The pension comes once in six to seven months."

Hundreds of elderly people, hailing from remote villages across 20 states, came to Delhi demanding at least R2,000 as old-age pension. The Pension Parishad, led by National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy, is spearheading a campaign to push the Central government to agree to a universal pension for senior citizens.

At present, the government gives old age pension only to the ones below poverty line.

According to an estimate by Helpage India, around 90% of 10 crore people above the age of 60 work in the unorganised sector, in the absence of any social security mechanism. Less than two crore are covered under old-age pension schemes.

"I have been running from pillar to post to get old age pension," says Gadki Bai of Rajasthan. In many states, getting such funds hinge on the discretion of local legislators who are quite inaccessible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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