There are around 60 million blind and visually impaired people living in India. A majority of this population remains ignorant, with limited or no access to opportunities of education and employment. This also means they remain financially dependent on family and close community.
The government of India offers a monthly Disability Pension to support their basic needs. This pension scheme is implemented through central as well as the state government. Depending on the disability population size of a particular state, the amount allocated by the state and central bodies varies.
For instance, in Delhi the monthly allocated amount is INR 2500 but in a large state like Uttar Pradesh with a high disabled population, the allocated amount in INR 1000. Given the current cost of living, the amount is meagre, yet it proves essential and helpful for those who lack support from their own families. A monthly pension is all they have to make ends meet.
Recently, Eyeway received a lot of calls from visually impaired people living in different parts of Uttar Pradesh, who experienced delays, irregular disbursal, or even no response to new pension applications. Some of the people who called included 18-year-old Akash Kumar Gond from Ballia, 24-year-old Sachin Kumar from Basti and 24-year-old Suraj Singh from Shravasti.
Some of these were students while some sitting idle at home. There were also others who called from Pilibhit, Etawah, Fatehpur, Mau and so on. Understanding their dependence on this monthly amount for survival, the Eyeway counselor worked proactively with the Advocacy officer to approach the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and the concerned state department.
While the Eyeway team reached out to higher authorities, the counselor also guided the affected people to visit the district level officials as they are the last mile implementing agents. We realized that direct communication between the local agency and the pensioners proved important for the authorities to understand gaps in implementation and correct errors.
As a result, most callers received a successful closure to their complaints, with pension amount credited to their accounts. There are a few cases like Akash which are still pending but we hope liaising between government departments and reporting the grievances to concerned officials will help resolve those as well.
Team Eyeway