Review of Social Welfare Pension Schemes in Kerala – A Study with Special Focus on Pensioners Falling under Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme

Abstract

Kerala is a state that is incomparable with many other states in India in matters of literacy, employment, social security, health, and many other social welfare initiatives. Social Security is the sum of all government regulations and provisions that aim at enhancing the people’s living conditions, including legislation/acts/laws, regulation, and planning in the fields of old age, wage, unemployment, social exclusion, sickness, and health care, and income security measures such as food security, employment, education and health, housing, social insurance, and social assistance. Financial assistance provided by the Government towards various pension schemes exhibits its concern for the privileged group in society. Various social welfare pension Schemes offered by Govt of Kerala include 1) Agriculture Labour Pension, 2) Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension, 3) Indira Gandhi Nation Disabled Pension Scheme for Physically & Mentally Challenged Persons, 4) Pension to Unmarried Women above 50 Years and 5) Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme. Social security protects people living in economic and social distress. It can "protect'' people against a fall in living standards and living conditions through ill-health, unemployment, and accidents, and also "promote" enhanced living conditions, helping the poor to overcome persistent deprivations. There has been a growing demand that the approach to social security programmers and schemes should progressively shift to a rights-based framework and should not be viewed merely from a welfare prism. Welfare scheme aims to support the vulnerable section of society. The present study aims to 1) understand various social welfare schemes adopted by Govt of Kerala, and 2) Assess the benefits and Woes of Widows who avails Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension. The present study is based on data collected from primary and secondary sources and suitable statistical tools will be used to analyse the collected data. The study reveals that even though it is one of the flagship initiatives of the Government of Kerala, it has many flaws. A better understanding of the woes of pension beneficiaries will help in better implementation of the project.