Not a country for old people

Why it is practically impossible for elders to live independent and dignified lives on government pensions

Over the years, I’ve often wondered why successive governments have set such miserly pension amounts that it is practically impossible for elders to live independent and dignified lives on them. 

Consider the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme through which the Centre gives a monthly pension of Rs 200 to seniors between 60 and 79 years of age, and Rs 500 for those above 80. How is anyone expected to survive on this amount, even assuming they have access to the PDS and subsidised healthcare? This week, 10,000 elders from across the country gathered in Delhi to demand a pension of Rs 2,500, half the minimum wage. It’s a justifiable demand, I felt, having known many seniors who have continued to work in the absence of a viable option. For them, retirement, in many ways, would mean falling through the very large holes of India’s social security net.

Consider the case of Babulal. When the gardener died last year in his late 60s, there was widespread approval of his death that initially surprised me. Then I understood why. Babulal worked hard till a week before his death and had been able to live independent of his sons all his life. He never accessed the government pension. “I earn Rs 10,000 a month from gardening,” he’d scoff. “How will I survive on the Rs 2,000 pension the Delhi government gives to people like me?” 

Sixty-five-year-old Sudama has a similar story. She continues to work long hours as a cook instead of retiring to her village in West Bengal and accessing her pension. “I’m eligible for a pension of Rs 750,” she says. “In my village, assuming my relatives take pity on me and offer me a place to stay, my expenditure on food and basic necessities will be over Rs 1,500,” she adds.

Compounding the issue are the routine problems in pension disbursement. Sometimes state coffers are empty, sometimes the biometrics don’t match and in some cases, as Pension Parishad and Right to Food Campaign have recently highlighted, Aadhaar cards haven’t been seeded. But elders in the unorganised sector rarely have the means to withstand these delays. For example, in December 2017, 64-year old widow Premani Kunwar, died in Jharkhand after the state’s Aadhaar-based payment system accidentally redirected her pension money to a different account.

As this week’s rally highlighted, the problems of India’s elderly will only increase as the cost of living goes up. Demographers forecast that between 2006 and 2050, India’s population will grow by 40 per cent. In comparison, the number of people aged over 60 will increase by 270 per cent. 

Some years ago, the Pension Parishad asked elderly participants what they’d do if they actually got the pension they were demanding. The responses were immensely moving. An old gentleman with failing eyesight said he’d get a good shave from a barber. Another said she would finally buy the spectacles she urgently needed. A third said he’d be able to afford taking an auto to buy his medicines, as he found it difficult to walk. Seemingly trivial, such things have an immeasurable impact on quality of life. It’s high time we stopped seeing pension as a dole — it is every citizen’s right, and one we all may need one day.