The announcement of Indira Guarantees by the V D Satheesan government has thrown up a riot of 'social welfare'-related confusions in Kerala.

Will the new government go ahead with the LDF government's 'Sthree Surakha' monthly pension of ₹1000 for women in the age bracket of 35 and 60? When will the government increase the social welfare pension to ₹3000?   When will the Oommen Chandy Health Insurance Scheme come into being? Will MEDISEP cease to exist when the Oommen Chandy Health Insurance Scheme becomes operational? 

Will a social welfare pension recipient with a son or daughter in a developed country be automatically removed from the list of beneficiaries? Will the UDF government allow beneficiaries to receive both social welfare and welfare board pensions? Will the door-delivery of social welfare pensions be persisted with? 

Chief Minister V D Satheesan was unable to give a definitive answer to any of these questions in the Assembly on Monday.  

It was CPM's Attingal MLA O S Ambika who wanted to know whether the door-delivery would continue. "The existing practice will continue. Whether there should be any change in the new scheme of things has not yet been decided," the Chief Minister said during Question Hour in the Assembly on Monday.

Nearly half the 62 lakh beneficiaries receive their social welfare pensions right at their doorsteps from agents of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies. For the rest, the monthly assistance is delivered through banks.

In 2023, the Comptroller and Auditor General had observed that such direct benefit transfers were susceptible to fraud.

Social security pensions are paid under five heads: Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension, Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension, Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension, Pension for Unmarried Women above 50 years and Agriculture Labour Pension. The first three has a small percentage of central government support, the last two is fully paid by the Kerala government.

Ambika also informed the House that the disbursal of the 'Sthree Suraksha' pension had been stalled in the last two months. In his last Budget Speech on January 29, the then finance minister K N Balagopal said that by then 16.32 lakh women had joined the scheme. 

"Will this scheme continue," she wanted to know. "This Sthree Suraksha scheme is not part of the social welfare pension scheme under Indira Guarantees. It was a pension the previous government had begun distributing in February, just before the elections," the Chief Minister said. 

Nonetheless, he stopped short of declaring that the scheme has been dumped. "The government has not taken a decision on this scheme. The House will be informed once the decision is taken," the CM said.

CPM's Kunnamkulam MLA A C Moideen wanted to know if the promised increase in social welfare pension, from ₹2000 to ₹3000, was under the consideration of the government. "Though it was a major campaign promise, it did not figure in the latest Budget," Moideen said. 

The Chief Minister said that increasing the social welfare pension to ₹3000 was one of the six Indira Guarantees. Two of them - free travel in KSRTC and a Department for the Elderly - have been implemented in the first month itself, he said. 

He, however, did not give a specific date on which the increased pension amount would come into effect. Instead he made fun of the previous LDF government's promise. 

"The last LDF government had promised that the social welfare pension will be increased from ₹1600 to ₹2500. But not a single rupee was increased in 'four and three-quarter' years of its term. And on the eve of the election, it was increased to ₹2000," Satheesan said. "There will not be such a delay in implementing our promise," he said.

The Chief Minister also said that the social welfare beneficiary list would be constantly updated to weed out the undeserving. "An officer recently told me, not wholly in jest, that a person had called from Los Angeles and had complained that he had not received his social welfare pension," the CM said, highlighting this as an example of families moving up the economic ladder and still pocketing welfare pension meant exclusively for the poor.

This prompted opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan to intervene. "The person the CM referred to could be the mother of a son living in Los Angeles. She might have gone there but back here at home it is not necessary that she was supported by her non-resident son. So I doubt whether such a factor should count as a disqualification," Pinarayi said. 

Satheesan seemed to interpret Pinarayi as saying that the former government had included the undeserving in the beneficiary list. "When the list was drawn up, the family would definitely have been deserving. But in the course of time its financial condition would have improved. This is the case with many families," the CM said. 

However, he accepted the spirit of Pinarayi's argument. "In the conditions that exist now (for drawing up the beneficiary list), people with AC in their homes are disqualified," Satheesan said. "There are widespread complaints about this condition. It is only natural for a son or daughter to install an AC in the house of a parent who is seriously ill. People have asked how a poor family could be denied pension just because there is an AC in the house," he said.

The CM said that the government's objective was not to exclude beneficiaries but to conduct timely audits to weed out people whose conditions have improved and include the truly deserving who have been left out. "We require such a mechanism. But I understood what the opposition leader said. Just because a son is in America does not mean that he is supporting his parents back home. Your observation will be taken seriously," the CM told Pinarayi.

The trickiest question came from Congress's Kovalam MLA M Vincent. "Will the UDF government reconsider the LDF government's decision to limit a beneficiary to just one pension," Vincent said. 

The previous LDF government had abolished dual pension, limiting beneficiaries to just one pension, either social security or welfare board. Vincent argued that welfare board pensions were based on the contribution of the employees, and was not a free assistance like the social security pension. "The last government had denied the welfare board pension for those receiving a social security pension. Will this government be willing to grant both these pensions," Vincent said.

The CM was not ready to make a commitment. "A detailed study on the distribution of pensions and conditions involved should be done. We have not yet had the time for such a study. But we will do our best to streamline the pension payment process," Satheesan said.

The Oommen Chandy Health Insurance Scheme will also be implemented after a detailed study, the CM said. The scheme promises up to ₹25 lakh insurance for a family. 

It will not be free for all either. "The poor will not have to pay a premium but there is no need to provide free insurance to families with a monthly salary of over ₹1 lakh," Satheesan said. It is still not clear when the scheme would become operational.

He said the MEDISEP insurance scheme for government employees, with a maximum cover of ₹5 lakh, would not be discontinued. "However, wherever the schemes overlap, the Oommen Chandy Health Insurance will have precedence. We cannot offer two insurance cover," Satheesan said