Presenting the Union Budget 2023-24 on February 1, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman asserted that ‘since 2014, the Union Government has ensured a better quality of life and a life of dignity’ for all its citizens. But the budget figures help separate the rhetoric from the truth. This year, drastic cuts in food security and various social security and welfare schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) have weakened the already precarious lives of a large number of poor people in India.
One section that has been left out is the crores of elderly and other social security pensioners who are being brutally pushed into destitution. Since 2007, the social security pension given by the central government under the centrally sponsored National Social Assistance Program (NSAP) has remained stagnant at a meager amount of ₹200 for the elderly and ₹300 for widows and persons with disabilities . Moreover, the pension is given only to those who are obsolete and discredited in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list prepared as per the 2001 census. As a result, the budget for the NSAP has remained stagnant at around ₹9,000 crore, and is steadily falling short in real terms. This year, the NSAP saw a reduction of ₹16 crore, from ₹9,652.31 crore in FY 2022-23 (BE) to ₹9,636.32 crore for FY 2023-24 (BE), due to the so-called “inclusive” Making fun of the model. Development”.
In Rajasthan
Nine days after the Union Budget, on 10 February, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot presented the Rajasthan budget, which was a lesson in contradictions. Rejecting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s criticism of a rights-based approach to development, Mr. Gehlot set a milestone for providing 125 days of work through rural or urban employment in the state, and pioneered minimum income guarantees and pensions. announced the implementation of the law. Guarantee, and a minimum social security pension of ₹1,000 per month, with an automatic increase of 15% per annum.
NSAP is a centrally sponsored social security scheme that provides non-contributory income security to the elderly, widows and disabled persons from “BPL families”. The central government’s contribution to the program continues to be in three main schemes, the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS), the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (IGNWPS) and the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS). Same in last 15 years. The percentage share allocated to NSAP in the total expenditure budget has come down from 0.58% in FY 2014-15 (BE) to 0.21% in the current budget (FY 2023-24). In addition to the Central contribution, the State Governments are encouraged to match the amount as Central contribution under the guidelines of NSAP. But as the Central Government’s contribution is pitifully low, trends in 36 States/UTs indicate that most States are providing many times more than the suggested amount.
Today, Rajasthan provides social security pension to more than 90 lakh people, with NSAP covering only a small part of the pension of 10 lakh pensioners. After this budget announcement in Rajasthan, the total amount spent on pension is expected to go up to ₹11,500 crore, which is almost 30% more than the entire National Social Security pension budget under NSAP.
Increment and indexing with inflation
Failure to index social sector expenditure to inflation has further marginalized the vulnerable. India’s cumulative inflation rate from 2007 to 2023 is 193.19% with an average annual inflation rate of 6.95%. This means that if ₹200 had been indexed in 2007, it would have become ₹586.38 in 2023. In 2016, hundreds of social security pensioners sitting on a dharna wrote letters to Members of Parliament and cabinet ministers over the age of 60, offering them one day’s pension and requesting them to try for just one day with an amount of ₹7. Do it and survive. The Congress party’s Jairam Ramesh, even when he was the rural development minister, publicly described the amount as a “cruel joke”. It is worth mentioning that the annual increase in dearness allowance and dearness relief of about one crore central government employees and pensioners puts a burden of about ₹12,000 crore on the exchequer – about 30% more than the total expenditure on social security pensions.
Not only the amount but also the number of pensioners is important. Central assistance to States/UTs under NSAP is determined on the basis of BPL population of the State. To calculate the estimated number of beneficiaries under each scheme for each state, the central government relies on the population data of the 2001 census. Additionally, the stringent criteria of providing disability pension only to those with disability level of 80% or more has been excluded. Lakhs of disabled even within the obsolete BPL category.
In 2013, the Rajasthan government changed its eligibility criteria to expand the coverage of pensioners by making economically weaker women above 55 years and men above 58 years eligible for old age pension. It also allowed widows with adult children to receive widow pension, and anyone with more than 40% disability to receive disability pension. As a result, the number of social security pensioners in the state increased from 14 lakh to 58 lakh. Today this figure has crossed 90 lakhs, all of whom will come under the cover of the proposed law.
ensure minimum conditions and dignity
Other states and even the Government of India should follow Rajasthan’s example and take necessary steps to convert their existing schemes into an Act that provides for more credible powers, strengthens accountability, and Provides legal protection at par with other welfare laws. The central government should recognize that pension is a right for the work done by unorganized sector workers, who are making a fundamental contribution to the GDP and the economy throughout their lives. People’s movements and campaigns have demanded a universal and non-contributory minimum monthly pension equal to 50% of the minimum wage which is periodically adjusted for inflation. This rights-based approach is not based on charity, but on the recognition of the right of workers to ensure minimum conditions to live a retired life with dignity.
Two election-year budgets present sharp ideological differences between the parties at the Center and in Rajasthan. Whether the Ashok Gehlot government’s measures will yield electoral gains or the Narendra Modi government will pay the price at the ballot box with cuts in social security depends on many factors beyond public welfare policies.
However, for vulnerable working people, senior citizens and the disabled, rights-based entitlements provide a measure of a dignified life, which should be the aim of any democracy, regardless of the immediate electoral implications. Ultimately, it is our compassion and commitment to meeting the basic needs of our most marginalized that will judge us as a society and as a nation.
Asmi Sharma is associated with Jan Sarokar Manch. Nancy Pathak is associated with the Pension Council campaign. Nikhil Dey is the founder member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. All the authors are part of Pension Parishad Abhiyaan, a mass movement working on the issue of social security rights and pensions.