A shocking incident has been reported involving 78-year-old Keshavar Mishra in Uttar Pradesh. He is alive, yet government records have reported him dead. So his old-age pension has ceased for the last five months. Mishra has continued to run from the panchayat office to the block office and find himself running into every kind of obstacle in his journey for justice to show that he is still alive.
The old-age pension scheme aims to provide financial support to senior citizens who often depend on it for their daily needs. This pension saved his life in Keshavar Mishra’s case. But by no fault of his own, official records, because they were affected by clerical errors or negligence, had mistakenly read his name dead.
Not only did this mistake prevent him from having his legitimate pension preserved, but it also created a humiliating hurdle for him to overcome in establishing his presence. Problems like these are not rare in Uttar Pradesh where the state government has given a number of elderly people papers that prove they are dead even if they are still living.
Mishra has visited government offices for the last five months multiple times, trying to convince officials that he is alive. He has approached both the panchayat and the block office but it's been a slow, cumbersome and frustrating process.
The stop of his pension has been very difficult for him financially, and the emotional strain of being declared dead compounded his suffering. He illustrates how poor the record-keeping is and how unaccountable government institutions can be.
But what is good about shining a light on such cases is that those cases reveal how the administrative systems themselves operate within these loopholes. They are a reminder to the authorities of the essential role of accurate records and safeguarding of vulnerable citizens.
The problem, however, is to rectify the errors swiftly and make sure that this will not transpire again. Older citizens like Mishra should not have to prove their existence repeatedly. Stricter monitoring, better verification systems and accountability are needed to try to stop the occurrence of such a crime.
Keshavar Mishra being reported dead in official government records is not that simple: a tragic case of incompetence. For him, the struggle isn't only about getting his pension back; it's about the dignity he was given in his old age. His struggle is a reflection of how the elderly men and women should be respected, helped and accurately acknowledged in official documents. Until some reforms are put in place, many senior citizens will continue suffering in silence, running from office to office to show that they are alive.
