On Tuesday, the Pension Parishad and Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) hosted a press conference at the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) in New Delhi. To bring light on the hardships faced by pensioners in Rajasthan due to digital exclusion, which depicted a dire need for reform in the process of pension distribution. Justice Madan Lokur and advocate Prashant Bhushan joined the event through video conferencing and pointed that this is not merely social justice but also basic right. Nikhil Dey from MKSS presented cases from Rajasthan most of the were elderly, disabled and widowed pensioners who faced denial of their pensions due to administrative woes.
Systemic Failures Affecting Pensioners
The organizations pointed out that no new application for disability pensions has been accepted in the last seven months. They also lodged a complaint that the Aadhaar had been made compulsory when the government had specifically assured that it would not be, making the scheme exclusionary of those needing it the most. They stated that more than a crore pensioners are severely affected, and nearly 13 lakh pensions are cancelled every year due to problems in data.
Personal Accounts of Deprivation
Among them are 74-year-old Pani Deva, whose pension was stopped two years ago because she was wrongly marked "out of state." Social worker Leela Devi said Deva had never left her district. Another case is 72-year-old Ghisi Devi, whose pension had been stopped since February 2022 due to her Aadhaar verification. More tragic is the case of 22-year-old Gudiya, who has been wrongly marked "out of state," thus stopping her disability pension. It calls for instant action for the vulnerable pensioners in the state. The Rajasthan government has also accepted that the pensions were wrongly stopped due to wrong information and is inquiring into the matters.
Inputs by Agencies
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