Chandigarh: Haryana is set to become the first state in the country to allocate pensions for unmarried men and women between the age of 45 and 60 years.
Beneficiaries of old age samman allowance, widow pension, disabled pension and Ladli Social Security Allowance Scheme as well as dwarfs and eunuchs get Rs 2,750 per month in Haryana. The same amount is likely to be disbursed to the latest group of beneficiaries.
An official in the Chief Minister’s Office said that CM Manohar Lal Khattar has already held discussions on this issue and once the scheme is implemented, Haryana will become the first state to have such a scheme.
Only those having annual income less than Rs 1.80 lakh will be eligible under this scheme.
Nearly 1.25 lakh individuals are likely to benefit from this scheme, the official said, adding that it could be launched within one month.
The announcement of this new scheme was announced Sunday by Khattar during his Jansamvad programme at Kalampura village in Karnal when a 60-year-old unmarried man complained that he was not getting his pension.
After directing an official to address the grievance, Khattar told people that his government will soon start pensions for unmarried men and women.
With the Haryana election due in October 2024, political parties are vying with each other in announcing the amount they will pay as social security pension to the people — the old-age pension being its biggest component.
वृद्धावस्था पेंशन को हम अगले 6 महीने में बढ़ाकर ₹3,000 कर देंगे pic.twitter.com/4fRBnLhopu
— Manohar Lal (@mlkhattar) July 2, 2023
While his government has been providing Rs 2,750, per month as pension to senior citizens, Khattar Sunday announced that it will be raised to Rs 3,000 in six months.
The Jannayak Janata Party has announced to raise it to Rs 5,100. Not to be left behind, the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) have promised Rs 6,000 and Rs 7,500, respectively.
On Tuesday, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala described the move as a “bad joke” on unemployed youths.
To a query at a press conference he addressed with his colleagues Kumari Selja and Kiran Choudhry at Chandigarh Tuesday, Surjewala said that the reasons behind people not marrying could be personal in some cases, but it is largely because of unemployment.
“Haryana has the highest rate of 37.4 per cent as per the CMIE report 2022. This government has failed to provide the youths jobs, and now it is playing a bad joke with them by announcing a pension for them,” he asserted.
Skewed sex ratio
As per the 2011 Census, Haryana had the worst sex ratio in the country with 879 females against 1,000 males. The problem has been persisting for decades, as the sex ratio was 870:1,000 in 1981, 865:1,000 in 1991, and 861:1000 in 2001.
On Monday, All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) vice-president Jagmati Sangwan told The Print that Haryana has 7,356 villages and that she has hardly come across a village that doesn’t have 40-50 unmarried men well past marriageable age.
Gender equality activist Sunil Jaglan, who had launched a campaign ‘Bahu Dilao Vote Lo’ (Get us bride for our votes) before the 2014 parliamentary polls, gave an insight into the social issue in Haryana.
“We launched an organisation called Avivahit Purush Sangthan (Unmarried Men Association) before the 2014 parliamentary polls. During the launch of our organisation, we found none of the 7,000-odd villages of Haryana had less than 50 bachelors who were of the age of 40 or above,” Jaglan told The Print Monday.
Such is the situation that many in Haryana pay money to get brides from states like West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, he added.
Clutch of allowances, pensions
As per the official website of Haryana Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, 1.84 lakh people get Old Age Samman Allowance (senior citizens pension), 8.35 lakh people get widow pension, and 1.92 lakh people get disability pension. There are 57 and 39 beneficiaries of allowance given to dwarfs and eunuchs.
Besides these categories, 20,646 individuals get Rs 1,850 per month as financial assistance to destitute children who are deprived of parental care because of the death or imprisonment of their parents, long illness or developmental disability.
Other similar schemes include those for non-school going disabled children under which Rs 2,150 is disbursed monthly to 10,830 beneficiaries.
The northern state even has The Haryana Pran Vayu Devta Pension Scheme under which custodians of trees older than 75 years are provided Rs 2,500 each year. Khattar had announced this scheme on 5 June, 2021.
(Edited by Tony Rai)