Until recently, Naseem Ahmed, a 43-year-old daily wager in Nuh’s Jhimrawat village, and his wife, Warisa, could only afford a quarter of a litre of milk daily for their four children. But two months ago, they were able to increase it to a litre per day after Ms. Warisa started getting ₹2,100 monthly aid under the Haryana government’s flagship scheme – Deen Dayal Lado Lakshmi Yojana. The “luxury”, however, was short-lived.
The Haryana government has amended the scheme through a notification on January 8 to make the payment in two parts from the second month onwards. While ₹1,100 will now be credited directly to the beneficiary’s savings bank account, the remaining amount will be deposited in a government-operated recurring deposit/fixed deposit account with its tenure not exceeding five years.
Split disbursement
“It would have been better had the government continued to pay the entire amount every month. It was a substantial help for poor families like us,” Mr. Naseem said, adding, “Who knows what will happen five years from now? The government might bring some new amendments. You can only rely on what you have in hand now.”
Khursheed, the husband of another beneficiary, Irfana, a resident of Shadipur, said the monthly aid was a “big help”. “For us, it was equivalent to four days of wages. With this money, we could be sure about at least two square meals a day,” he said. Mr. Khurseed’s annual income is ₹80,000 as per the Parivar Pehchan Patra, Haryana’s unique 8-digit family ID scheme under which families with an annual income of less than ₹1.80 lakh are eligible for multiple welfare benefits.
For Savita, a resident of Udaka village, the monthly aid was an “emergency fund”, which she kept aside for medical emergencies. “My husband works in a small private firm earning ₹7,000-₹8,000 per month. Sometimes, we don’t have cash for medical exigencies,” she said. On the new decision to pay it in two parts, the 29-year-old said poor people like her have no say in such decisions taken by the government.
Apart from women with an annual income of less than ₹1 lakh, the government has now brought more beneficiaries under its preview through the notification integrating the social development-linked eligibility criteria with that of income-based eligibility. Also, women whose children studying in government schools have demonstrated academic excellence by securing more than 80% marks in Class 10 or 12 board examinations, or have achieved grade-level competency under the NIPUN Bharat Mission in Classes 1 to 4, will be considered eligible. Similarly, mothers who have successfully rehabilitated their children from ‘Severe Acute Malnutrition’ or ‘Moderate Acute Malnutrition’, as verified by the Women and Child Development Department, will also be covered under the scheme.
Talking about the new conditions, Mr. Khursheed said, “The poor can’t even afford to send their children to tuition. How can their children get 80-90% marks in government schools? It seems the government simply doesn’t want to give the money and is, thus, imposing these conditions.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party, in its manifesto for the 2024 Assembly poll, had promised “₹2100 monthly aid to all women” as one of its 20 major commitments.
A postgraduate in History, Shahid, 47, a resident of Nagina’s Karehra Ferozepur, runs a grocery shop in the village. His wife Pramina, 44, is the beneficiary of the scheme. He demanded that the aid under the scheme be given on a monthly basis similar to the Old Age Samman Allowance Scheme.
Delayed payment
His wife got the first two instalments in the first week of November and December last year after Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini launched the scheme on November 1. However, the instalment for January was not credited till the third week. “It is mid-January, but this month’s instalment has not been credited to the account. I raised the query in the app for the scheme, but there has been no reply,” Mr. Shahid said.
An amount of ₹181 crore was transferred as the third instalment to the accounts of more than 8 lakh women under the scheme on January 17.
Mr. Naseem said his village has around 15,000 voters, and many families have an income of less than ₹1 lakh, but they did not have the requisite documents to claim the pension. “The officials seek several documents such as Aadhaar card, residence certificate, income, electricity, and bank details. It is difficult for the poor, illiterate people to complete all the paper work. A little over 100 women are registered under the scheme in our village but the actual number of those meeting the criteria could be very large,” he said.
The beneficiaries are also required to undergo ‘liveness detection’ every month by completing face authentication through the Lado Lakshmi App. Instead of monthly, it should be biannual or annual, Mr. Naseem suggested.
The names of several women in the district were approved by the local authorities for the scheme, but said they are yet to receive the money. Manju Gupta, a resident of Gurugram’s Laksham Vihar, said they had completed all paper work for her daughter-in-law Payal, 21, but were yet to receive the money. “It has been over two months… We enquired many times at the local office, but they have no clue. Many women in our neighbourhood have not got the money,” said Ms. Gupta.
Nuh District Social Welfare Officer Birender Yadav told The Hindu that his office had approved of 38,676 names for the scheme, but their details needed to be further verified before the commencement of the pension, causing the delay. “At least 10-12 people come to us daily seeking to know the status of their application,” said an employee of the Social Welfare Department.
