Aasara Pensions in Bangaru Telangana

Aasara Pensions

The government, as a part of its welfare measures and social safety net strategy, introduced the “Aasara” pension, with a view to ensuring secured life with dignity for all the poor.

‘Aasara’ pension scheme is meant to protect the most vulnerable sections of society, in particular, the old and infirm; people with HIV-AIDS, widows, incapacitated weavers and toddy tappers, who have lost their means of livelihood with growing age, in order to support their day to day minimum needs to be required to lead a life of dignity and social security.

With a view to combat the ever-increasing cost of living and inflation, the Telangana Government introduced on 8th November,2014, a new Pension scheme called “Aasara” enhancing the monthly Pension from Rs.200/- to Rs.1000/- for old age persons, widows, weavers, toddy tappers and AIDS patients and Rs.500/- to Rs.1500/- for disabled persons. The government also extended the financial assistance @ Rs. 1000/- per month to the poor Beedi worker under Aasara Scheme from the month of March 2015 onwards.

In the past, Rs.835.63 Crores per year was spent by the previous Government. Now the Telangana Govern¬ment is spending approximately Rs.4000.00 Crores per year for payment of pensions under the new Aasara Pensions Scheme. This is 478% increase over the past.

The government of India under National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP) is providing Rs.264.84 Crores per annum towards pensions. The Government of India scale of pension is Rs.200/- pm below (80) years and Rs.500/- pm for 80 and above years of age. For widows and disabled persons, it is Rs.300/- pm with the Government of India funds 8.15 lakhs pensioners are covered under National Social Assistance Program-

Category wise pensions in the State

Sl. No.	Category of Pension	No. of Pensioners
1	Old Age (OAP)	13,70,476
2	Disabled	4,37,343
4	Widow	12,92,783
5	Weavers	33,128
6	Toddy Tappers	55,086
7	HIV Patients	15,588
8	FA to Beedi Workers	3,51,350
	Total	35,55,754

Equal opportunities, protection of rights & complete participation through CBOs. The disability interven¬tions of IKP have enabled more than 4.1 lakh persons with disabilities in the rural areas to be organized and develop their own CBOs.

The PwD (Persons with Disability) activities are implemented in 438 mandals through 436 Mandal Vikalan¬gula Samakhya (MVS) and 9 Zilla Vikalangula Samakhyas (ZVS), 198207 PwDs are organized into 18,796 ex¬clusive PwD SHGs in the State of Telangana.

PwDs are given an assistance of Rs.18.32 crores through CIF, Rs.214 crores Bank Linkages, Rs.9.9 crores Stree Nidhi and Revolving Fund for enhancing their livelihood.

Status report of Persons with Disability from inception to 17.12.2015
#	District	Total Assessed	Total Eligible	Loco motor/OH	Visual	Hearing	Mental Retar dation	MentalI llness	Multiple Disability
				Eligible	Eligible	Eligible	Eligible	Eligible	Eligible
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	Adilabad	61,586	43,638	26,662	6,667	5,714	4,242	308	45
2	Hyderabad	32,623	29,730	19,857	2,708	2,480	4,528	151	6
3	Karimnagar	1,51,317	94,986	55,627	13,117	10,808	9,864	5,175	395
4	Khammam	66,999	50,686	31,320	5,021	4,790	8,855	566	134
5	Mahabubnagar	1,17,537	75,587	49,076	8,879	4,473	8,664	4,279	216
6	Medak	63,239	37,594	23,715	4,122	1,833	5,844	2,072	8
7	Nalgonda	1,13,785	74,293	47,157	8,031	5,052	7,192	6,351	510
8	Nizamabad	70,696	49,712	31,977	7,086	4,419	4,108	2,105	17
9	Ranga Reddy	87,030	67,561	46,547	7,527	6,085	6,934	405	63
10	Warangal	99,681	67,792	42,165	10,167	5,323	7,813	1,858	466
Total		8,64,493	5,91,579	3,74,103	73,325	50,977	68,044	23,270	1,860

Community Managed Health & Nutrition

Around 1800 Nutrition cum Day Care Centres (NDCCs) had been established to provide three nutritious meals and health education to pregnant and lactating women

Gender Advocacy

As part of Social and Human development on Gender initiative, 250 Mandal Level Social Action Committees are formed and 250 Community Managed Family Counseling Centres (CMFCCs) are functioning to reduce violence and injustice to address the following social issues which plague the State of Telangana.

• Crimes against women (rape, sexual harassment, eve teasing, acid attacks)
• Domestic violence
• Dowry harassment
• Female Foeticide/Infanticide (leading to low sex ratio)
• Child Labour
• Child Marriage
• Alcoholism (amongst men leading to increasing in crimes against women)
• SC/ST atrocity cases
• Jogini/Basivini/Matangi Systems
• Trafficking
• Witch hunt (Violence against women purported to be practising black magic)

Till now 40,000 women have got counselling support through these CMFCCs. Social Action Committees are also playing a significant role in the prevention of Child Marriages.

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department is the nodal agency in the State for providing drinking water and sanitation facilities in rural areas. The drinking water facilities are being provided by various types of schemes such as bore wells with hand pumps, Protected Water Supply Schemes , Community Protected Water Supply Schemes etc.,

The Government is determined to solve the drinking water problem in rural areas with following

Objectives

• Delivery of adequate, safe and potable drinking water to all rural people.
• Safe water to fluoride, brackish and other polluted habitations.
• Up gradation of all habitations to fully covered status.
• Special focus on sustainability of sources/schemes.
• Proper sanitation facilities to all habitations.

Various State and Central Government programmes such as National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC), Swacch Bharat Mission(Gramin)(SBM(G)) and other external agencies provide the funds for implementing schemes/works for providing drinking water facilities and sanitation facilities to the habitations. Funds are also being tapped in the form of loans from NABARD, HUDCO, and World Bank.

Water supply infrastructure

There are 1,58,552 hand pumps, 25,100 PWS Schemes, and 160 CPWS Schemes are existing as on 30.11.2015. The district-wise details are as follows:

S. NO	District	CPWS	PWS/ MPWS	HAND PUMPS
1	Mahaboobnagar	16	3562	15560
2	Rangareddy	9	1354	10480
3	Medak	28	3323	17040
4	Nizamabad	17	5028	12020
5	Adilabad	13	2646	23517
6	Karimnagar	16	2064	20880
7	Warangal	11	2186	18241
8	Khammam	24	2000	19975
9	Nalgonda	26	2937	20839
Total		160	25100	158552

4089 works are ongoing with a cost of Rs.39470.10 crore to cover 24,802 habitations under various grants such as NRDWP, NABARD, World Bank, 14th Finance Commission Grants etc. For the year 2015-16, 2106 habitations are targeted for cover.

Out of which, 1361 habitations are targeted for coverage during 2015-16. An expenditure of Rs.741.61 Crores is spent up to November 2015 and 1361 habitations are covered i.e., 1139 partially covered habitations and 122 quality affected habitations.

G.Rajendera Kumar