Disability pension less than Rs 500 a month in eight states: Govt
Persons with disability are provided less than Rs 500 as monthly pension from the government in states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland with lowest at Rs 100 in Mizoram. Maharashtra with highest beneficiaries provides only Rs 300 a month to people with disability. Read on to know more.
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra are among states that give Rs 500 per month to its beneficiaries. Photo: Pixabay
Following a question raised in the Rajya Sabha on disabled persons supported through state pension schemes, the government revealed that eight Indian states give less than Rs 500 as monthly pension to beneficiaries. These include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghayala, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Odisha.
At Rs 100 a month (or Rs 3 per day), the lowest pension is provided by the northeastern state of Mizoram to its 200 beneficiaries registered with the state government. Among bigger states, Maharashtra with the highest number of registered diasbled people at 1,212,945 and Madhya Pradesh with 479,085 beneficiaries both provide Rs 300 monthly pension each, whereas Odisha with 386,305 disabled persons provides Rs 200 to its beneficiaries.
This data was shared by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, Faggan Singh Kulaste, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, February 9.
The highest monthly pension to disabled people is offered in the southern state of Telangana, which provides Rs 3,016 a month to each of its over 569,712 beneficiaries. After Telangana, Andhra Pradesh provides Rs 3,000 to its 659,163 beneficiaries. In the Union Territory Puducherry which has 20,952 number of beneficiaries, the pension ranges between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,800 per month.
India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh provides Rs 1,000 to its 1,117,314 beneficiaries with disability.
Of 34 states and Union Territories in the country, only seven provide more than Rs 2,000 to persons with disability. These include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Puducherry, Telangana, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
This amount is given to beneficiaries under the State Disability Pension Scheme. In addition to this, a person with a disability of 80 per cent or more in the age group of 18-79 years of below poverty line family is provided a pension of Rs 400 per month: Rs 300 by the central government and Rs 100 by the state government, under Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme. Under this scheme, Rs 773.4 million was released for about 773,000 disabled beneficiaries as of December, last year, informed the rural development ministry.