(Download) Yojana Magazine Free PDF Archive : July-2017

Hand-holding the Elderly
Sumati Kulkarni- 7

Focus

Securing Life's Second
Innings
Badri Singh Bhandari -13
Health for All
K Seeta Prabhu - 20
Empowering the Differently
Abled
Sandhya Limaye - 27
Securing Farmer’s Welfare:
Reality to Vision
Nilabja Ghosh - 33
Prioritising agriculture to
nutrition pathways
Mousumi Das-. 39
special article
social security:
Global Scenario - 48
Chandrakant Lahariya
NORTH EAST DIARY - 47

Do you know?

Nurturing a Healthy
Learning Environment
Kiran Bhatty - 55
ensuring a rising tide
Urmi Goswami - 62
Protecting the
unprotected
Ruma Ghosh - 66
Systemic Reforms
in MGNREGS
Khyati Srivastava
Vidushi Sahani - 69
A Commitment to Support
Initiatives
Jatindar Singh - 75
NPS-Lite/Swavalamban
Scheme and the
Atal Pension Yojana - 78

There is much talk everywhere about India's demographic dividend with debates ranging from how India's growing young population will make India a world economic leader sooner rather than later to how the same young population may turn out to be a drag on the economy with no employment opportunities to offer them.

In all this hype on the demographic dividend , one critical fact seems to has to be kept in mind by our planners, economists and social thinkers is that India also has a rising population of the elderly. It is estimated that India's elderly population will reach 173 million by 2026. Much of this population will consist of the poor, underprivileged and women who will need some kind of financial and psychological support. There are other vulnerable groups as well – like women, differently abled, marginalized, unorganized labour- all of whom require some kind of support from the government to sustain their lives. Social security is a covenant that promises support to these vulnerable sectors of society, a covenant that cannot and should not be broken by a democratic government. Fortunately, our constitutional framers had built in provisions for social security for various sections of the population in Article 43 of the Constitution. And, successive governments have faithfully ensured the upkeep of the spirit of the Article. Schemes like Indira Gandhi old Age Pension Scheme and Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme ensure social security
for the elderly. While pension was ensured for all government employees post retirement and was one of the key attractions of government service, the private sector had no such facility. People who retired from the private sector had to be solely dependent on savings made while in service. This meant that post retirement , if xpenses like education to children or marriage of daughters was to be incurred, this made a big hole in the savings and the employee was left with very little for meeting day to day expenses, expenditure on health, etc. It was to resolve this problem that the government initiated schemes like the National Pension Scheme, Atal Pension Yojana, Swavalamban, etc to ensure steady income post-retirement.

Farming is one hazardous occupation with success or failure of the crop dependent on vagaries of the weather, availability /non-availability of water, pests, et al. Realising that the welfare of the farmer is a key to economic stability, the government introduced schemes like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Kisan Credit Card for facilitating funding of various agricultural activities like buying seeds, fodder for cattle, fertilizers, etc. All these schemes are expected to ensure security for the farmer in his duty of feeding the nation. Another related area is food security – i.e. ensuring food reaches the millions of population who cannot afford to buy cereals and pulses at market prices. The Public Distribution system was started to ensure that basic food products were available at subsidized prices. The PDS has now been linked to DBT to make sure that its benefits reach the genuine needy person.