Mahesh Kumar- Village Kara, District Kosambi, Uttar Pradesh Mahesh Kumar primarily reports on issues related to caste discrimination and equal rights . Mahesh Kumar became aware of his lower caste status when he began school. Teachers and peers constantly humiliated him on the basis of his caste. Lower caste members are often discouraged from attending school. The constant discrimination lowered…

Mahesh Kumar

Share

In Nizamamai village of Kaushambhi district in Uttar Pradesh, 500 people from dalit households reside. Golaki Devi & 3 other elderly people reside in this community who are not receiving their Old age Pension. In this video, CC Mahesh Kumar tries to find out why are they not receiving their pension, how are managing without it & what can we do to help them access their right.

Golaki Devi is 60+,  has no land to practice agriculture on nor any other source of livelihood. Her son drowned in the river Yamuna, leaving her alone after the demise of her husband & his father. Golaki is surviving with whatever little help her community can provide. 3 other people documented in this video, Hub Lal, Raj Rani & Rampati are also not receiving their old age pension and find it extremely difficult to survive. As per the Old age pension scheme of the Government of India, people above 60 are entitled to benefits from the Government including basic facilities like ration, pension & access to healthcare. None of these facilities have been made available to these citizens. They have approached the village head several times requesting him to make the card & enlist them under the scheme, to which the village head has been completely negligent & unresponsive.

The elderly folks from Nizamamai community have to struggle for basic amenities. With no source of income or any other resources to help them survive, they need immediate support. CC Mahesh Kumar says that the Village head is completely unresponsive & avoids all sorts of communication. In this case, the BDO also has the power to solve this issue & help the folks get their pension.

Please Call : BDO, Nizamamai area, Kaushambi district, Uttar Pradesh at 99181775000 & request him to help the elderly as soon as possible. 

About the Partnership: The Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme and Video Volunteers have come together to create the Community Correspondents Network. The videos generated by the network will be able to highlight voices from the margins, providing skills to social communicators to provide advocacy tools to community based organisations.