New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) A week-long campaign, aimed at raising awareness among voters about the right to food security and demand for universal pension, opened here Friday.
The Right to Food Campaign and Pension Parishad flagged off the ration-pension yatra (roadshow) in the national capital.
The objective of the campaign is to cover the slums and undeveloped colonies in all the seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi.
The first meeting in a colony in Seemapuri revealed that most of the people, mostly women, were unaware about the National Food Security Act, 2013, enacted by parliament September 2013. According to the act, all new ration cards would be made, preferably, in the name of the eldest woman in a house.
In the second meeting at a shelter home in Mansarovar Park, most of the children appeared to be malnourished and not a single person had a ration card, though several had voter I-cards.
People were unaware of the fact that under the law, all the families are now entitled to a fixed quantity of food grain at a uniform price.
A few residents of the two areas had some knowledge about the National Social Assistance Programme, which provides pension to people.
A consensus among the people called for inflation-indexed pensions for all vulnerable segments of society at a minimum of Rs.2,000 or half their minimum wage.