A press conference
for demanding universal old age pension entitlement was held at the Indian
Women Press Corps, New Delhi on 4 May, 2012. RTI activist Aruna Roy (MKSS) who is
spearheading the campaign-Pension Parishad said that there is an ongoing debate
on poverty. Poverty issues have been taken up in the discourse on development. Since
the longevity of the poor has gone up but ageing body is unable to perform
skill based task, pension becomes important for livelihood at old age. There is
little or no social security available for the poor who are old. Joint family structure
has broken down into nuclear family structure leaving no income or housing
support for the aged. A recent meeting held at TISS, Mumbai revealed that Rs.
200/- per month is given to an old person aged between 60-80 years, and Rs. 500/-
per month is given to an old person aged 80 years and above. Of the total
elderly population, only 1.97 crore are beneficiaries of Indira Gandhi National
Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS), which means that only about one in every five
persons over 60 years old receives old age pension. Universal non-contributory
pension has been demanded by Pension Parishad for those above the age of 55
while the eligibility for women has been pegged at 50 years without any
distinction on the lines of BPL and APL. For other vulnerable groups or workers
in hazardous industries, the age of eligibility has been pegged at 45 years. Aruna
Roy asked for considering pension to be an individual entitlement and linking
pension to inflation. There is demand that there should not be forced
retirement due to pension. Daily pension should be equivalent to half of
minimum wage.
Baba Adhav, veteran
leader of unorganised workers in Maharashtra, informed about the social
security conference that took place in Pune in February, 2012. He said that
Bhalchandra Mungekar was also present during the conference. The government has
shown lack of willpower to implement the Social Security Act (SSA) 2008. The Advisory
Committee for implementing the SSA 2008 was formed only in two states-West
Bengal and Karnataka. Baba Adhav gave the examples of rickshaw pullers and hamals who are victims of old age. He
said that universal pension is provided in Goa and in a country like South
Africa where the President has gone for an official foreign trip recently.
Prof. Prabhat Patnaik
(former member of the Kerala State Planning Board and ex-faculty member JNU) said that
if Rs. 2000/- is given as monthly pension to an old person, then the total cost
of providing pension to 8 crore old people who are not yet covered would be Rs.
1,92,000 crore, which is roughly 2 percent of GDP. If a quarter of the rise in GDP
(which is presently growing at 8 percent per annum) is kept aside, then the government
can use this for funding universal pension. He ended with “The state of civilization
must be judged by the way it treats its elderly.”
Annie Raja (National
Federation of Indian Women) informed that NFIW is part of Pension Parishad.
Aged persons are discriminated everywhere including Kerala.
Prof. Ravi Srivastava
(former member of the National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganised
Sector and faculty member JNU) informed that as per the estimates by National Commission for
Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), 93 percent of the workforce is
employed in the unorganized sector. 77 percent of the population is poor and
vulnerable. As per the recent estimates by KP Kannan, the figure has come down
from 77 to 70 percent. Social security is a right of the workers. Social protection,
social security and sustainable human development are all interlinked. Old
people of tomorrow are workers of today. They deserve protection. The universal
pension scheme has to be non-contributory. For financing the scheme, the government
needs to impose social security tax and levy cesses on industries. Rs. 500,000
crore has been given as freebie to various industrial houses in the current
budget. Inequality has been costly to the Indian society. Maoism is a growing
socio-economic problem. In Brazil, old age pension has redistributed income and
reduced income inequality, he added. The idea is to raise money via additional
revenue generated and not using money from the existing tax base. If there is a
universal entitlement scheme, then the migratory construction workers would be
benefited.
Activist Subhas Lomte
said that pensions of MPs and MLAs have gone up but not of the poor and aged
unorganized workers.
Dharna Program schedule
Along with a focus on
Pensions, the following related issues will also be discussed in public
hearings on the 5 days of the Dharna -
7th May 2012– Public
hearing on issues of the elderly.
8th May 2012– Public
hearing on Accountability and Grievance Redress related to Pensions and
entitlements for the elderly. The Grievance Redress Bill will also be
discussed.
9th May 2012– Public
hearing on issues of marginalised and vulnerable groups
10th May 2012– Public
hearing on issues related to the National Food Security Bill and food security
of the elderly
11th May 2012–
Pension Parishad discussion on the response to the charter of demands. Planning
the way forward.
PENSION PARISHAD
DEMANDS
• A Universal and Non Contributory Old
Age Pension System to be established immediately by the government with a
minimum amount of monthly pension not less than 50% of minimum wage or Rs
2000/- per month, whichever is higher.
• The pension to be an individual entitlement
for all eligible citizens of India.
• The monthly pension amount to be
indexed to inflation bi-annually and revised every two to three years in the
same manner as is done for salaries/pensions of government servants.
• Any individual 55 years or older to
be eligible for the old age pension.
• For women, eligibility age for
pensions to be 50 years.
• For highly vulnerable groups (such as
the Primitive Tribal Groups, Transgender, Sex Workers, PWDs), the eligibility
age to be 45 years or fixed according to their particular circumstances.
• No one to be forced to compulsorily
retire from work on attaining the age of eligibility for universal old age
pension.
• A single window system for Old Age
Pensions.
• APL / BPL criteria should not be used
for exclusion.
• The payment of pension not to be used
to deny any other social security / welfare benefit such as benefit under the
Public Distribution System.
Exclusion Criteria
• Individuals whose income is higher
than the threshold level for payment of income tax
• Individuals who are receiving pension
from any other sources that exceeds the pension amount under the Universal Old
Age Pension Programme.
Key findings of the ILO report entitled: World Social
Security Report 2010/11: Providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond, http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_146566.pdf
are as follows:
# In India, public
social security expenditure excluding health expenditure (as % of GDP) was 3.10
percent in 2005 (see Table 25. Public social security expenditure, Statistical
Annex Part B) as compared to 4.08 percent in China during 2006, 12.30 percent in
Japan during 2005, 21.4 percent in France during 2005, 9.6 percent in Brazil
during 2001 and 9.7 percent in Canada during 2005.
# Over 60 per cent of
the elderly now live in countries classified by the United Nations as “less
developed”. In 2050 the elderly in "less developed" countries will
constitute nearly 80 per cent of the world’s elderly population. Sixty per cent
of them will be living in Asia, with over half in just two countries: China and
India. These developing and ageing societies have to do something urgently to
ensure the right to retirement in dignity and social security to their elderly
members.
# India’s National
Old-Age Pension Scheme, financed by central and state resources, reaches
one-fourth of all the elderly: about half of pensioners who live in poverty.
# Old age dependency
ratio (see Table 1: Demographic trends: Dependency ratios, Statistical Annex
Part A) in India is predicted to rise over the years: 7.0 in 2000, 7.4 in 2005,
7.7 in 2010, 12.2 in 2030 and 20.2 in 2050. However, youth dependency ratio
is expected to decline over the years: 57.7 in 2000, 53.1 in 2005, 47.9 in
2010, 33.1 in 2030 and 26.8 in 2050. Hence, the notion of youngistan is clearly
a myth.
# Population over 60
years as % of total population (see Table 2: Demographic trends: Ageing,
Statistical Annex Part A) is expected to rise in India over the years: 6.7 in
2000, 7.0 in 2005, 7.5 in 2010, 12.4 in 2030 and 19.6 in 2050.
# Population over 80
years as % of total population (see Table 2: Demographic trends: Ageing,
Statistical Annex Part A) is expected to rise in India over the years: 0.5 in
2000, 0.6 in 2005, 0.7 in 2010, 1.2 in 2030 and 2.6 in 2050.
Notes:
Youth dependency
ratio (%): a measure showing the number of youth dependants (aged 0–14) to the
total population (aged 15–64).
Further
readings:
Notes from the
Pension Parishad held at TISS, http://pensionparishad.org/pension/resources/Notes-%20Pension%20Parishad%20-%20TISS-%20April%20,2012.pdf
Old age
blues-Sreelatha Menon, The Business Standard, 6 May, 2012, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/sreelatha-menon-old-age-blues/473503/
Elderly people to
stage dharna-K Balchand, The Hindu, 4 May, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3384811.ece
Universal old age
pension sought for elderly citizens, The Asian Age, 4 May, 2012, http://www.asianage.com/india/universal-old-age-pension-sought-elderly-citizens-963
Universal Pension
Demanded for Elderly, 4 May, 2012, http://beyondheadlines.in/2012/05/universal-pension-demanded-for-elderly/
Aruna Roy seeks
universal pension rights for elderly-Puja Bhattacharjee, Governance Now, 4 May,
2012, http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/aruna-roy-seeks-universal-pension-rights-elderly
Unorganized Workers'
Social Security Act, 2008,
DIGNITY FOR THE
ELDERLY: JOIN THE CAMPAIGN,
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