For over a year, nearly two lakh people kept waiting for pension

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There are 1,90,000 such people in the city, including senior citizens, widows and differently-abled persons. Right now, they are nothing more than numbers as no unions are willing to represent them in their fight to get their pension.

When salaries for corporation employees became were delayed earlier this year, the city came to a standstill. Protests were announced and slogans shouted. However, “when it comes to dependents like us, there is not even a slowing of pace to take note,” says Asha.

She lost her older son in an accident a few years ago while the younger one was born with polio. “My son’s wife and two young children are now my responsibility. I lost my husband 10 years ago,” she said.

The meagre pension allowed Asha to visit a hospital to buy medicines for herself, and run the family single-handedly.

With no pension, medicines are now a luxury. “I have stopped using public transport as even that is expensive now. Instead, I walk so that I can save money for my grandchildren and give them milk once a day,” says Asha.

She said the councillor’s office advised her to seek help from local MLA Sarita Singh, and ask to be included in the Delhi government’s pension list. “But that means I have to go to her house which is an hour away. I cannot spare money to travel that far. I sometimes eat at a relative’s house to save rations at home,” she added.

Pensions were started by the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 1998 at Rs 100 per head. Seventeen years later, the amount has gone up marginally. While the pension has been delayed several times, it has been never been suspended indefinitely, until now.

“During the Sheila Dikshit years, we received our quarterly pension without delay,” 64-year-old Sohan Lal claimed. He shows a small diary, used as a passbook, to prove this. In the last entry on July 14, 2014 — which was signed by the local councillor — Rs 3,000 was disbursed.

As councillors debate the failure of BJP-led corporations in carrying out their welfare functions, little is being done to divert funds for disbursing pensions.