ELDERLY PEOPLE TO STAGE DHARNA
About 5000
elderly people will stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar here from May 7 to May 11 ,2012,demanding
universal old-age pension for all those above 55 years. They are mobilised by
social rights activists under the banner of Pension Parishad. Co-conveners of
the parishad Aruna Roy and Baba Adhav, who launched the movement in Pune on
February 1, said the changed socio-economic scenario and the rise in longevity
had added to the disadvantage of the elderly people in the unorganised sector. While
on the one hand their lifespan had increased, elderly people no longer enjoyed
the protection of their wards and other relatives and were now required to fend
for themselves. Their physical condition did not even allow them to collect
water from wells or hand pumps, let alone earn a proper living.
Social
activists Subhash Lomte, Annie Raja, Ravi Srivastava and Prabhat Patnaik said
it was time the state provided some relief in the form of monthly pension of
Rs. 2000 to such people. The demand is for a non-contributory pension to those
above the age of 55 while the eligibility for women should be 50 years without
any distinction on the lines of BPL and APL. For other vulnerable groups, the
age of eligibility should be pegged at 45 years.
According to
the parishad, those above 60 years accounted for 8.2 per cent of the population
—10 crore people — and in their estimation, the state would have to bear about
Rs. 3.6 lakh crore a year after excluding 10 per cent of the elderly
individuals. They hoped the Centre would bear 75 per cent of the outgo — that
is Rs. 2.7 lakh crore. They proposed a cess on the industrial sector to raise
the needed funds and provide relief to the government. The Centre pays Rs. 200
as pension to those above 60 years and Rs. 500 to those above 80 years,
covering only 1.87 crore BPL families. (senior citizens,)
Prof. John Kurakar
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