Geetanjali Krishna: The social insecurity net

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

Deep furrows of grief and worry mar old Jameela's face. Her husband died four years ago, leaving her destitute and dependent on the not-very-tender mercies of her daughter and son-in-law. And although she's entitled to a paltry sum of Rs 300 a month as widow pension, that's been hard to obtain.

"I applied to the MCD for pension, they first said my name was spelt wrongly on my ration card. I had that changed and reapplied, but I was told my name wasn't there at all in their records. The third time, they said there were no more funds, and that I'd have to wait for a pensioner to die so that I could receive my pension," she says.

Nine months ago, when she finally received some money, she was too thankful to ask whose place she'd taken.

Guddi, widowed while she was in her 30s, has five children to support, of which one is physically challenged. The sole wage earner in her household, she earns about Rs 1,000 to 1,200 a month doing household work. "But that's not enough to make ends meet," she says sadly.

"And the widow pension that I'm entitled to comes so erratically that I can never bank on it!" Although she should have been receiving the pension for the last six years, she's got it only in the last nine months. "That would have still been acceptable, for beggars can't be choosers. But the problem is that we never know when it will come "" I went six times last month to the MCD office to enquire if the pension money had come. Sometimes they give me two months worth of pension, at other times five months worth. In the last nine months, I've been given my pension in three installments. But if it's not regular, one can't bank on it for recurring monthly expenses...," she says.

Old Kasturi has been a widow for the last 25 years, and has received her first installment of pension this month. "It feels so wonderful to finally have my own money after such a long time," she says, "even though I feel sad that I didn't get it for so many years when I should have." All these years, she was too timid to argue when her application for widow pension was turned down on flimsy grounds, time and again.

"Once when I filled the application form, an official told me that I'd be entitled to it only after I turned 60!" The unkindest cut of all came when she wasn't issued a below-poverty-line (BPL) ration card: "even if they gave me my due, my income would be only Rs 300 per month, plus the Rs 1,000 my son gets. Still I'm not poor enough for the government to give me a BPL card!"

Zaibunisa Begum, widowed only eight months ago, doesn't receive widow pension. For she has no proof of her husband's death. "My husband had some life insurance, and after he died, the agent took away the receipt of his burial from the graveyard. I let him take it, thinking he'd get me the insurance money. But that hasn't happened, and without the receipt, I can't get an MCD death certificate made, as I was too disturbed to think of it at the time when my husband died," she says. No proof of death, no widow pension...

Without proper implementation, the government's social security net cannot support the people who need it most. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I'm sure Jameela, Guddi, Kasturi and Zaibunisa would agree.