While chatting with a teacher in Anantapur, I came to know that there were several people there who were receiving old age pensions, though they were not eligible to do so. Reports about discrepancies in the disbursement of old-age pensions in Anantapur have emerged in the media here and there.
Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) is one of the sub-schemes of National Social Assistance Program. The scheme came into existence with effect from 15th August 1995. It aims to provide social assistance to poor people above the age of 65 years as old-age pension. Every person covered under the scheme is eligible to get Rs. 200 per month from the Government.
Though it looks like a case of clear cut corruption, it is not just that. It is tough to say what drives people to this action- ignorance, greed or simply lack of options? Sushila Amma of Lattavarm, is 42 years old according to her smart card. But she has been receiving pension under IGNOAPS for the last 5 years. Her husband is dead and she has one son. She wasn’t sure under which category she is getting the pension-widow or old age. When asked why she had applied for old age pension she had no answer. Inspite of repeatedly asking her to talk alone, her son refused to leave her alone and she was seemingly intimidated. She has also applied for widow pension.
In the same village I also found that there was complete ignorance amongst people regarding the schemes they were benefiting from. The YSR Abhaya Hastam (Helping Hand) Scheme is an insurance scheme under which a premium of Rs.365 in a year entitles one to get a pension of Rs.500 per month. Women in Lattavaram claimed that they had paid an amount of Rs.3650 a year back and they have yet not received the pension. They are not aware of the fact that they needed to be sixty years old before they got it. Those who are above sixty already, are not aware that the amount is Rs.365 and not Rs.3650. Gopal, the husband of the village Sarpanch confirmed that such an amount was paid by the women and blamed the delay on the government officials. “It takes time in such things sometimes,” he said.
S.Raju of Shekshampalli says his mother has been depositing Rs.1800 in State Bank of India, Uravakonda, as a premium for the Abhaya Hatam Scheme for last three years. When asked how much pension she will get in lieu of this, his reply was Rs.500 per month. In this case either he is not aware that the actual pension money that they are entitled to get will be much higher than Rs.500 as the premium is high or they are paying a wrong amount which probably is being pocketed by some officials.
S.Raju says it is not too tough to apply for old age pension even though one is young. He says “you just need to chat the person up, give him things sometimes and you will be listed for the pension.”
The consequence of this misrepresentation is that the rightful owners of the scheme sometimes become left-outs. Karappa of Shekshampalli is 68 years old. He had applied for the pension a few years back but does not receive any. He says “people in their thirties in my village are getting 200 rupees per month but I am not getting it.”
The story is more prominent in Anantapur town. According to a source who was a former corporator in Anantapur and who requests to keep his identity secret, many people in Anantapur town have availed of the IGNOAPS scheme fraudulently and he has personally facilitated some of them. He says “many wrongs happen around us, if this small wrong gives some people help, it’s not wrong.”
38 year old Lakshmi Narayan of Anantapur town, is disabled and cannot do any work. He and his wife have a kid. His father is paralytic and mother is suffering from acute menstrual problems. His wife works as a domestic help and is the only breadwinner for the family. They stay in a house given to them by the government under the Indramma scheme. For a family that earns five hundred rupees a month, the value of an added two hundred is imaginable.
Gangamma is a neighbor of Lakshmi Narayan. One can see from the entrance of her house, new boxes of mixer grinder and colour television. Her house seems full of belongings and hardly looks deprived. When asked how she could afford these luxuries, while she was taking the old age pension at the same time, she replied “ oh these things came in the dowry, my son got married last year.” She and her husband have two sons. The elder son is the only bread-winner of the family. She claims their monthly income is just twelve hundred rupees which is too less for a family of five; so with the help of the corporator, she applied for the old age pension scheme.
49 year old Qutubuddin, is also a resident of the same area. He has not been working for past 10 years. His wife works as a maid servant and his only son left his studies last year after completing the tenth grade to work in a shop so that the family would have some source of income. From the tattered house his mother says they are finding it tough to have full meals every day.
What looks like pure corruption is also a story of chronic poverty and deprivation. Both in Lattavaram and in Shekshampalli, the majority of the population is SC and ST. The level of incomes is very low. Children do not wear slippers to school as they don’t have one. Most of the families in Anantapur that I met were in dire need of help, however small it could have been. The Corporator who is godfather for these people, is not a corrupt man. He won the Corporator’s seat as an independent and lives in an equally dingy house as his voters do. He does this as a help for the people who are in need. At the same time he acknowledges that it’s not the right thing to do.
Ashina, who belongs to the Mandal office and is responsible for the distribution of pensions in these two villages said that “such misrepresentations are hardly there and those that are there will be cancelled soon.”
It is tough to say what is responsible for this situation-corruption or deprivation.
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