Supporting their cause, NAC member and activist Aruna Roy voiced their demand and said, "Our vote will go only to those who guarantee us pension."
"There needs to be a political will. There is no economical, legal or ethical argument against the need to provide pension," Roy added.
During the five days of the agitation organised by Pension Parishad, several emininent people and politicians addressed over 3000 men and woman, mostly elderly, who had gathered here from 20 states and 90 organisations.
"It is not just for money, but the realization of a right for all, particularly for the old. For instance if there is a war tomorrow the government cannot evade it by saying they don't have resources and we'll fight next year. Similarly they will have to find resources now to solve this pension problem," economist Prabhat Patnaik said.
Today, the protest held near Jantar Mantar saw politicians cutting across party lines from TMC, Congress, BJP, CPI(M), BJD, SP and others supporting the demand for a universal pension scheme.
"We are concerned for resources for social justice. The government will have to find a viable strategy to commit themselves to income redistribution," said Ravi Srivastava, Economist from JNU.
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"Let pension be linked to minimum wages in the unorganised sector. They cannot divide the pension arbitrarily into APL and BPL," Srivastava added.
"Pension rights as well as property rights would not only give the old and economically backward some economic security but also some dignity and bargaining power in the family," economist and NAC member Jean Dreze said.
Some of the steps suggested by the Pension Parishad activists include restructuring the payment process, enforcing univeral pension scheme to be given on one specified date every month, doing away with the APL and BPL criteria and also increasing the pension to Rs 500 in the first phase of expansion.