Responding to COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India announced many welfare measures for persons with disabilities. Three months’ advance pension and an ex-gratia of rupees 1000 under National Social Assistance Program (NSAP) were two such highlights on paper.
However, in Karnataka, the concerned authorities did little to implement the relief promised. Our Eyeway Helpdesk in the state is a testimony to distress callers who are at their wits end. Not having received a single penny, even from their usual pension amount in months, their survival is at risk.
The tipping point for visually impaired Riyaz Khan, a Class 10 student from Gulbarga, came when he didn’t even have money to pay the promised fee for his scribe who helped write his board exams. Timely support from Eyeway pulled him out of that financial trouble. Following that, he has frequently visited the Tehsildar’s office seeking intervention but so far there has been no positive development around it.
Anand, a visually impaired petty shop owner from Belgaum suffered severe business losses due to the pandemic. He was leaning on his disability pension to get him through this tough time. He was shattered when he did not receive the pension amount even after eight months. Only recently, with Eyeway’s guidance, he contacted the Tehsildar and his pending amount for the last 3 months was released.
Similarly, Eyeway also managed to facilitate 3 months’ pension for Hussain, a Class 10 student from Raichur, through the area’s Tehsildar. He had been waiting for 8 months to buy study material from the pension amount that never came.
The irony is that although Disability Pension in Karnataka is a paltry sum of 1400 rupees, scores of people have been deprived of it since the onset of Covid-19. At a time when the vulnerable population is dependent on supportive measures, the government seems to know little about the on ground state of affairs.
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