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Even as the Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s promise to provide minimum basic income for the poor on the lines of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has kicked off a debate, over 50 eminent economists have written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to highlight two priorities in the next Budget: An increase in social security pensions, and adequate provision for maternity benefits.
“In the end, the buzz around the UBI is an old trick, a tactic to distract from having to enhance meagre social provisions. The government has been violating its maternity entitlement obligations (₹6,000 per child) under NFSA since 2013. It has held its contribution to social security pensions (for elderly, single women and disabled persons) at ₹200-300 per month since 2006,” development economist and professor at IIM Ahmedabad, Reetika Khera, told BusinessLine .
Economists Vijay Joshi, who is Emeritus Fellow, Merton College, Oxford University; and Pranab Bardhan, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of California Berkeley, and their counterparts from various universities and institutes across the world had raised the issue last year. This year, again they have approached the Government.
Additional allocation
“The Central government’s contribution to old-age pensions under the National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS) scheme has stagnated at just ₹200 per month since 2006. This is unfair. It is also a missed opportunity: NOAPS is a good scheme that reaches some of the poorest members of society. The Central government’s contribution should be immediately raised to ₹500 (preferably more) at the very least,” economists demanded in the letter. This will require an additional allocation of about ₹8,640 crore, based on the current NOAPS coverage (2.4 crore pensioners). Similarly, widow pensions should be raised from ₹300 per month to ₹500 at the very least. This will cost another ₹1,680 crore, the letter said.
Drawing attention to the maternity benefits, economists said maternity benefits of ₹6,000 per child are a legal entitlement of all Indian women (except those already covered in the formal sector) under the National Food Security Act 2013.
Economists demanded that the Budget 2019-20 should provide for full-fledged implementation of maternity entitlements as per NFSA norms. This requires at least ₹8,000 crore, based on a 60:40 ratio for Centre:State contribution. The illegal restriction of maternity benefits to one child per woman should be removed.
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