A forum representing single women has prepared a charter of demands pitching for enhanced budgetary allocation so that schemes such as monthly pension and benefits for care-givers can be framed for them. Their call comes at a time five States prepare to vote during Assembly elections and when there are nearly six months left for general elections.
The National Forum for Single Women’s Rights (NFSWR) has also demanded that the Central government look at issues concerning single women not solely as problems afflicting elderly widows but also widows of all ages as well as unmarried, divorced, separated and abandoned women.
They have urged the Centre as well as State governments to ensure a monthly pension of ?3,000 for all single women whose incomes are below the taxation limit and who don’t receive a pension from any other sources, representatives of NFSWR said at a press conference on Tuesday. They say that being from the below-poverty-line should not be a criterion to determine eligibility for pensionary benefits.
The collective of women’s rights groups has nearly 1.3 lakh women as members from across the country. More than 125 members from 13 States are in Delhi for two days for an advisory committee meeting.
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