The Narendra Modi Government at the Centre has chosen not to communicate with the people, but instead meeting only the corporates while taking policy decisions, said social activist Aruna Roy on Friday.
“Government is not even ready to hear the social sector. It is not speaking with the very people who voted them in. It is only the corporates who are given the hearing. The much needed dialogue between the people and the government is missing,” she said, while speaking at the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) in Mumbai, after addressing the two-day national convention of the ‘Pension Parishad.’
The Pension Parishad is a collective of around 200 groups working with the marginalised sections of society such as the aged, Dalits, transgenders, farmers, workers, waste pickers, head-loaders, sex workers, destitute etc.
Slamming the central government, on the eve of union budget, for suggesting cuts in the allocation of money for social security schemes, Ms. Roy said, “Given the need of universalisation of social security schemes, the track record of the present government which took recourse to drastic budget cuts on all major social sector schemes is blatantly anti-poor.”
“Schemes such as NREGS are under threat. The inflation poses a big problem and no one except the Adanis are getting help from banks. The rural India is certainly not enjoying Achche Din,” she said.
The Pension Parishad appealed to the central government to increase the allocation, instead of cutting it. “The money kept for this is stagnant at Rs 10,000 crores from last ten years in every budget, which gives only Rs 200 per month to an elderly person. This is a ridiculous amount and has to be changed to at least Rs 2000 per month,” said Prof. R Ramakumar, professor at the centre for developing economies, school of development studies, TISS.
Among several other demands raised including linking the pension to inflation rate and stop linking it with the poverty line criteria.
Veteran social activist Baba Adhav who was present for the Parishad said that while in opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported all these demands. “It’s a duty of a political party to fulfil promises it had made to the people. We expect the BJP to respect democracy,” he said.
