In July 2020, soon after the Covid-19 lockdown was lifted, 62-year-old Dukhan Singh fractured his leg when a wall collapsed on him in Ukama...
In July 2020, soon after the Covid-19 lockdown was lifted, 62-year-old Dukhan Singh fractured his leg when a wall collapsed on him in Ukamar village in Jharkhand’s Latehar district. As a small farmer with a meagre income, he had to borrow more than Rs 10,000 from relatives to pay his hospital bills. He planned to pay off his debts through the pension of Rs 1,000 that he is entitled to receive under a central government welfare scheme for senior citizens.
But for five months after his fracture, Dukhan Singh did not receive any pension money.
“I went to the post office several times, but they kept saying my pension has not yet come,” said Singh, a widower from an Adivasi community. “I did not even have enough money for rations, so I had to borrow even more to survive.”
Singh is not alone. Since July 2020, in the middle of a pandemic that has disrupted livelihoods across the country, the Jharkhand government stopped distributing pensions to nearly 10 lakh eligible widows, senior citizens and disabled beneficiaries in districts across the state.
The reason, according to state government officials, was the lack of money in Jharkhand’s coffers due to the central government’s delays in transferring funds to the state....
