Proactive identification needed for pension scheme: Economist

The government needs to set up proactive identification for inclusion of beneficiaries in the social pension scheme to make it more effective, a senior World Bank economist said Wednesday.

"The government machinery should look at proactive identification for inclusion of beneficiaries in the social pension scheme. Second, spreading of awareness is important. And third, starting up on enrolment camps so in one place you get people to meet the requirement and be enrolled," Rinku Murgai, a leading World Bank economist, told IANS.

She was here to present a study carried out by the World Bank on three Indian states - Delhi (only slum areas), Uttar Pradesh and Haryana - at the 29th GIZ-IGSSP Social Security Seminar on "Income security for the elderly and widows: Is social pension effective?"

It is a one-time survey where each state took about two-three months.

She said the awareness level about the social pension schemes is very high. "The awareness becomes problematic in the mechanism...like how I apply and who do I go to. The complexity of the procedures is there," she added.

Murgai, however, mentioned that leakages of funds are less. "There are delays in payments, at times."

The study was done on 3,000 cases each in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and about 2,500 in Delhi.