It has been three years since 32-year-old Alivelu Manga applied for a social security pension, but she is yet to receive any help from the state. A resident of Gollagudem in Turkapally mandal, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district, Manga who has been raising her two children by herself is in dire straits. After getting infected with COVID-19 six months ago, which also resulted in her losing her job, she hoped to get some succour with the nominal amount of Rs 2,000 provided by the state government for widows under Aasara pension scheme, but to no avail.
“At least that will be of some help. Without a job, making a living with two daughters has become too difficult. While the pension status of others is pending in various stages, my eligibility is approved. I am eligible for the pension, but yet I have not got a single penny till date. I do not know how long I have to wait,” Manga laments.
Manga lost her husband in August 2019, and she had immediately applied for the Aasara pension. As per the scheme, widows are entitled for Rs 2,000 per month pension. Others who are eligible for the pension include persons with disabilities, single women, beedi workers, filaria patients, HIV patients, old-age persons, and weavers. As Manga is unable to make ends meet, she has moved to her native village, and is being taken care of by her mother. She was previously working as a Data operator that provided a salary of Rs 10,000 per month.
Twenty nine year old Nagapuri Maheshwari, also a widow, from Turkapally village in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district said, “My husband died in March 2020, and I had applied for the pension the following month, but I have not received any money. Authorities cite the pandemic situation for the delay in the disbursal. I am fed up with asking them repeatedly.”
Like Manga and Maheshwari, lakhs of beneficiaries are waiting for their pensions from 2020.
The government changed the age criteria for applicants under Aasara scheme in 2020 and extended it to people who had turned 57 years of age at the time of applying. The earlier limit was 65 years of age and above, resulting in the increase in the number of beneficiaries, applying for relief under different categories.
“It has been nearly three years since beneficiaries were identified but not provided relief. Since changes in the eligibility criteria were made in 2020, many have not got pension. This has mostly affected widows. The government is boasting that they have provided Rythu Bima (farmer’s insurance) t0 75,000 families since the scheme was introduced, but the reality is that they have also denied pension to these families,” says B Kondal Reddy, an agricultural activist, who is a member of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, a Telangana-based farmers’ rights organisation.
The Telangana government had introduced Rythu Bima in 2018, where the government provided an insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh to a farmer. However, activists allege that after introducing this scheme, the government stopped providing pensions to the widows. They also allege that after introducing Rythu Bima, the government has been violating GO 173, under which farmers who die by suicide due to crop failure, are entitled to Rs 6 lakh compensation as part of the rehabilitation package.
According to officials, there are a staggering 10 lakh beneficiaries yet to receive pension. “Among the beneficiaries who are yet to receive pension, 7 lakh of them are old-age people and the rest belong to other categories,” admits an official on condition of anonymity.
According to the government 39,36,521 persons are availing the pension. In 2021, the Telangana government allotted Rs 11,728 crore towards the pension scheme. But the amount was not released.