India. Donate-a-pension retirement plan finds few takers

The government’s Donate-a-Pension initiative to build up a retirement kitty for unorganised workers, including domestic helps, has failed to garner enough responses.

The number of beneficiaries enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) scheme has slowed considerably in fiscal year 2022-23, strengthening the case for a major revamp of the initiative.

Only 14,518 unorganised workers enrolled under the scheme between April 1 and May 25, government data showed, bringing average enrolment in a month to a little over 7,000. This is about half the average monthly enrolment of 13,452 or annual addition of 1,61,432 beneficiaries in financial year 2021-22.

The labour ministry’s Donate-a-Pension initiative in March was aimed at reviving the PM-SYM as the Covid-19 pandemic had severely hit enrolments under the pension scheme after millions of workers lost their jobs in the wake of the nationwide lockdown in 2020.

Read more @The Economic Times

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