TN’s farmers, workers get security net to fall back on

A week from now, Tamil Nadu is set to put in place a social security net for agricultural labourers and small...

A week from now, Tamil Nadu is set to put in place a social security net for agricultural labourers and small and marginal farmers that could well be a prototype for the rest of the country. Delivering on one of its poll promises, the DMK government will provide social security cards to which aim at “cradle to grave” support.

The state Revenue department estimates that the scheme, providing financial assistance for education, maternity expenses, old age, and funerals, would cover lakhs of farmers and farm hands at an annual expenditure of Rs 500 crore.

The scheme had originally been initiated in 2000 during the fag-end of the previous DMK regime but it was shelved after the AIADMK came to power in 2001 only to get stop-gap revival in 2005 as the J Jayalalithaa government went to polls.

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Last year, the DMK government decided to legislate to provide a security cover for the scheme itself “to ensure that subsequent governments did not tinker with it”. In December last year, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Labourers – Farmers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2006, came into effect. The scheme will be launched by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, at Tamil Nadu’s rice bowl, Thanjavur.

The card will mark another first for the state. As of now, Tamil Nadu is also the only state to have welfare boards for the unorganised sector, including domestic and construction workers.

The highlights of the plan:

• The Act defines agricultural labourers to be “any person in the age group of 18 to 65 years, engaged to work in agricultural or allied agricultural operations for wages but who does not own any land”. A farmer, on the other hand, will be between 18 and 65 years who owns not more than 2.5 acres of wetland or five acres of dry land and cultivates the land himself or has a registered cultivating tenant

• The members will not be charged any fee for registration and each member will be issued with an identity card for a family

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• In the event of an accidental death of a member, the government will provide the family Rs 1 lakh. And, in the event of a member dying due to natural causes, the assistance will be Rs 10,000. In case of natural death of a member, the family would be provided funeral expenses of about Rs 2,500

• The children of the members would also be provided financial assistance for their education ranging from Rs 1750 and more from tenth standard upwards. For marriages, the government will sanction Rs 3,000 for men and Rs 5,000 for women

• Assistance for delivery or miscarriage of pregnancy or termination of pregnancy by a registered female member will be Rs 6,000 which will be paid in instalments at the rate of Rs 1,000 every month from the seventh month of pregnancy

• Every destitute member over 60 years will get a pension of Rs 400.