By B S Reporter
In a first which looks like to incentivise bachelorhood in Haryana, the state government is planning to introduce pension for unmarried men and women between the age of 45 and 60 years.
The state which already has a slew of pension schemes like old age samman allowance, widow pension, disabled pension and Ladli Social Security Allowance Scheme as well as dwarfs and eunuchs in which beneficiaries get Rs 2,750 per month, this new scheme is going to benefit around 1.5 lakh people who could not find their life partners.
The idea behind this scheme is to support and take care of people who are leading a lonely life and their annual income is less than Rs 1.80 lakh. As per the 2011 Census, Haryana had the worst sex ratio in the country with 879 females against 1,000 males leaving many vying for nuptial knot.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is unmarried and had been an RSS pracharak for 14 years before joining BJP in 1994, felt the pain of an unmarried 60-year old man who complained for not getting any pension for living.
“During Jansamvad programme at Kalampura village in Karnal, a 60-year-old unmarried man complained that he was not getting his pension. After directing an official to address the grievance, Khattar told people that his government will soon start pensions for unmarried men and women,” said an official handling the Jansamvad programme.
Scheme may promote live-in relations
While people from BJP is hailing the idea of supporting unmarried people, there are few who find this scheme to be incentivising singlehood.
“If such schemes come through, people with low income would prefer to remain single while maintaining live-in relationship. In such cases both the persons would get a pension of Rs 2,750 each,” said Ninder Singh, a social worker.
He further said that such schemes would bring bad impact on society.
“Marriage as an institution would be affected badly. Government usually gets involved in conducting mass marriages. Incentivising singlehood would be detrimental,” said Rajat Jain, a sociologist.
Senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala also described the move as a “bad joke” on unemployed youths.
He said that the reasons behind people not getting married is largely unemployment. However, in some cases it could personal as well
“Haryana has the highest rate of 37.4 per cent as per the CMIE report 2022. This government has failed to provide the youths jobs, and now it is playing a bad joke with them by announcing a pension for them,” he said.
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