Full article could be downloaded from: http://www.epw.in/special-articles/policy-practice.html Abstract A survey in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh--sstates that have extended social pension coverage beyond "below poverty line" families and increased pension amounts--sprovides a window into the challenges of scaling up such programmes. The survey reveals that increased coverage and higher pension amounts do not render the social pension regressive in its distribution; levels of leakage remain low and tractable. Yet, in practice, the schemes are unable to reach all of their target populations. A major challenge in expanding the pension net lies in ensuring entry for the poor. If pension programmes are to be scaled up, entry needs to be facilitated through stricter monitoring of inclusion errors, proactive identification, enrolment camps or other means.
Shrayana Bhattacharya (sbhattachar...@worldbank.org) and Rinku Murgai (rmur...@worldbank.org) are with the World Bank, New Delhi; Soumya Kapoor Mehta (soumyakap...@gmail.com) is an independent consultant and Maria Mini Jos (maria.mini...@gmail.com) is a student at the University of Pennsylvania. We would like to thank the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, the three state governments, our survey respondents and participants in focus group discussions for providing insights into the process and challenges faced in delivery of social pensions. We are also grateful to Ana Bellver, Stephen Howes, Roland Lomme, Lance Pritchett, Mihir Shah, and Vinaya Swaroop for comments on earlier drafts of the paper. Raghav Puri assisted in questionnaire design and piloting, and field supervision. Data was collected by the Social and Rural Research Institute of IMRB, with technology support from Sunai Consultancy. Data collection was co-funded by UK aid from the UK Government. However, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official policies. All views expressed in this paper, and any errors, are our own -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
