In Jharkhand, pension net widens, 15 lakh beneficiaries added in over 3 years

Director, Social Welfare, Chhavi Ranjan said increasing pension coverage is “top priority”.

“There were a lot of people left out of social security, which is important for a place like Jharkhand. We have added 15 lakh beneficiaries as the state government universalised the entire scheme. It means that now only two criteria remain to exclude people: that the person is an income tax payer or a retired pensioner. The government spends Rs 2,600 crore per year on universal pension alone,” he told The Indian Express.

The biggest boost has been to old age pension, where beneficiaries increased from 3.45 lakh to 14.25 lakh, and disability pension, where the numbers went from 87.7 thousand to 2.2 lakh.

Sources said Chief Minister Hemant Soren had conducted the ‘Sarkar Aapke Dwar (government at your doorstep)’ outreach programmes twice in all districts, which boosted registration. “In several meetings, we were given clear directions to add as many people elderly as possible in the pension scheme. Jharkhand largely has a rural population, and most of those who apply are eligible now. Hence, there has been a sharp increase.” said an official.

Sources added awareness about disability pension is low, and the process to certify a person as specially abled is long drawn. However, several districts have made efforts on this front. For instance, in Gumla, which has a population of 12 lakh, only 10,154 unique disability ID cards had been issued between 2000 and last year.

“The reason for such low enrolment was that UDID card or disability certificate was primarily issued only to persons who had visual or hearing impairment, locomotor disability or were suffering from some sort of mental illness.

Other types of disability like dwarfism, intellectual disability, sickle cell disease, Parkinson’s disease, and many others were not included. To overcome this exclusion error, Gumla District Collector Sushant Gaurav conducted a door to door survey to identify differently abled persons. As a result, 8,054 new persons were identified, a jump of around 80%. All were made the beneficiaries of the disability pension,” said a Gumla district level officer.

Some criticism

The Jharkhand government has, however, faced allegations that several widows have been excluded from the pension umbrella.

Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM), a civil rights body of which economist Jean Dreze is a member, had submitted a memorandum to Women, Child Development and Social Security Minister Jobha Manjhi, flagging issues such as women not being able to get death certificates made after their husbands had passed away. “This is a big hindrance for underprivileged women in remote areas. The requirement of a (court) affidavit for death certificate should be abolished and certificate should be issued only on the basis of verification of village-level authorities,” the memorandum submitted in February last year states.

Siraj Dutta, a JJM member, said: “The coverage is still far from the claims of universalisation. Many elderly and widows are still excluded because of a complex application process. Many elderly have incorrect age on their Aadhaar, and it is difficult to get that rectified. Many widows are unable to get the death certificate. These issues have been flagged several times to minister and bureaucrats.”

Sources in the department said this issue was indeed raised, but since it is governed by the Registration of Birth and Death Act, the process of issuing death certificates cannot be changed “until the state government makes certain rules”.