58 million Indians living without pension: Survey
New Delhi, Sep 29 : Fifty eight million people in India are living without pension or any other form of assistance, civil society organisation Pension Parishad has said.
Citing the State of Pensions in India Report 2018, Economist Prabhat Patnaik said the Central government spends as little as 0.04 per cent of the GDP for its flagship Indira Gandhi National Social Assistance (IGNOAPS) programme for ensuring income security for the elderly.
"It will cost only about 1.6 per cent of the present-day GDP to ensure 90 per cent of the elderly population a pension of Rs 2,500 per person every month," Patnaik said.
According to National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), a welfare programme administered by the Ministry of Rural Development, 80 million elderly people in India are entitled to a pension of Rs 200 per month.
This meagre amount reaches only about 22.3 million people, Pension Parishad Coordinator, Nikhil Dey said.
The organisation also pointed out that countries like Nepal, Bolivia, Lesotho, Bostwana, Ecuador -- all much smaller economies as compared to India -- ensure better social pensions for their elderly citizens.
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Doctors, professors barred from private practice during work hours: Min Sharan Prakash Patil
Bengaluru: Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr. Sharan Prakash Patil on Monday has warned that the government will take strict legal action on doctors or professors of teaching hospitals who were found carrying out private practice during their working hours.
Dr. Patil, in response to a question by Congress member Balkis Banu, said that the government had implemented a salary system based on biometric attendance, as it had received complaints of teaching hospital doctors and professors carrying out their private practice skipping work at the hospitals. The doctors and professors are required to attend to their duties at the hospital between 9 am and 4 pm, and have to mark their attendance through the biometric system four times a day, at 9 am, 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm, the minister has clarified before the House.
The minister said that the state government would soon start Bone Marrow Aspirate and Trephine Biopsy (BMAT) institutes at Mysuru and Hubballi to examine cancer cases in children. He added that officers Indira Gandhi Children Hospitals have been directed to establish BMAT.
The data presented before the House stated that over 1,500 children below 14 years are diagnosed with cancer.
