A task force set up by the Union government to look into pensions for the unorganised sector has recommended a universal one for those below the poverty line, to be done in the next five years. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has accepted the recommendations. If approved by the Cabinet, these would be incorporated in the National Social Assistance Programme being implemented by his ministry.
The NSAP is meant for pension to the aged, the disabled and widows. The panel recommends widening the ambit to widows from the age of 18 years and an increase, from Rs 200 a month to Rs 300 a month, in pensions for the ongoing central scheme.
Planning Commission member Mihir Shah, who headed the panel, said this rise would cost the government Rs 55,496 crore a year, up from Rs 14,369 crore a year now. The total financial implication for the current five-year plan would be Rs 131,626 crore, he said.
The task force was set up after a movement began under social activists Aruna Roy and Baba Adhav two years earlier, demanding universal pension as a right. They were demanding a minimum of Rs 2,000 for each aged person.
The panel says their recommended scheme is to be linked to the Direct Benefits Transfer project of the government. Pension payments are invariably delayed, as the transfers are made by the finance ministry to state finance departments, rather than directly to the social welfare departments, Ramesh said.The task force says it should be a centrally sponsored scheme, so that funds go directly from the ministry to the rural or social development department of the states.
However, the Pension Parishad led by Roy and Adhav have said what has been recommended is unacceptable and have threatened to continue their protests in Delhi, demanding Rs 2,000 a month for all the aged.
According to its calculations, a payment of Rs 1,000 a month by the Centre as pension only for the aged would cost it Rs 134,666 crore a year. This is close to what the government intends to spend for the aged, the widows and disabled together in the next five years.
Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in this city, and a member of the Parishad, said the recommendations of the task force were shameful and a slap on the face of the poor. The government does not think twice in giving a tax benefit of Rs 15,000 crore to real estate companies in incentives and exemptions but says it has no funds to give a pension to the poorest of the poor, she said. If they see Rs 300 a month as an adequate pension, how do they expect people to afford Rs 70 a litre for petrol? Every litre feeds into the price of essentials. The government wants a global price for diesel but has only Rs 300 a month for the aged, she added.
Ramesh said it was the responsibility of states to give pensions and many were giving much more than what the Centre was offering as its share. But a majority of the states, especially the socially and economically backward ones, were barely matching the Rs 200 his ministry was giving, he said.
