Jagan Shocks Single Women!

The Andhra Pradesh government which has been making tall claims that it supports women in all forms, has shown a stubborn hand especially to single women who have no basis.

CM Jagan led AP government has increased the age eligibility/criteria for single women, divorced and unmarried women under the YSR pension scheme. Earlier the pensions were given to single women who have crossed 35 years of age and now the government has hiked the age eligibility to 50 years for all the new pension applicants

The latest orders issued by the state government includes that a woman will have to be eligible for pension at least one year after leaving her husband. She would have to submit the appropriate certification documents that she was an independent woman. The government has issued directions to this effect.

Besides this the YCP government has also raised the pensionable age of unmarried women. So far it has been granting a pension to unmarried women in rural areas with or above 30 years and the age bar is hiked to 50 years.

In urban areas for unmarried women, the age eligibility was 35 years and the new guidelines implies to new applicants. One of the guidelines for pension includes that women should not receive any support from their family members. The new applicants who will apply for pension scheme, will have to obtain a certificate that they are single from local Tahsildhar and submit them to the concerned officials.

There are 1,88,062 pension holders in the single women category across the state. The government is giving them Rs 2,500 per month. Currently the AP government is implementing a policy of granting pension once in six months. As part of that, it announced that it would credit new pensions on July 1st.

However, many single women have applied for a pension as per the old guidelines. They are likely to lose their pensions if the latest orders apply to them. Analysts say that this new pension scheme will cause severe distress among the single women community and were critical of the YCP government for bringing fresh guidelines that trouble the single women.