Kerala: One pension' programme hits traditional sectors

KOLLAM: The state government's One Pension programme has proven to be a reckless effort to reduce expenditure by squeezing the destitute. The move has gravely affected pensioners in the traditional sectors like cashew who survive on widow and old age pensions. Those who answered a new questionnaire have lost their benefits considered as multiple pensions, and they now have to rely solely on meagre Provident Fund payments from their contributions without state support. There are several families now who are left hopeless with just the PF pension, which is as low as just Rs 700 a month.

Over one-third of the cashew workers in Kollam, 15,750 of them, have lost their welfare pension. They include paraplegia patients and those suffering from terminal illnesses like cancer. L. Thankamony (65), a former cashew worker in Mulluvila who leads a lonely life, has only an amount of Rs 700 from her provident fund a month to sustain. “I used to get widow pension for the last 25 years which was a slight relief for me. It has stopped ever since I filled up the questionnaire saying I get an additional pension from the social justice department, which is just Rs 1000, that too hiked recently," she says.

"My husband died 32 years back, and I started receiving widow pension when it was Rs 110. Even from the ration shop, I get only four kg of rice per month.” Over 39.5 lakh people in the state depend on welfare pensions. In Kollam alone, over a lakh pensioners will get affected by the move. They say the government is least concerned about them while being eager to increment DA to the service pensioners every six months or so.