OASIS

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OLD AGE SOCIAL & INCOME SECURITY

India is in the phase of a rapid demographic transition. Life expectancy is increasing while birth rates are on the decline. The share of population above the age of 60 is growing at a rapid rate. Those who cross the age of 60 are expected to live till or beyond the age of 75. This has not sufficiently dawned in the minds of our people. They tend to be myopic and are not saving sufficiently for old age, a period of 15 to 17 years beyond the age of retirement.

There is a serious threat that persons who were not below the poverty line, might sink below the poverty line in their old age, since not enough savings have been made by them. On the other hand, they have to incur heavy expenditure on health, neglect of which will only worsen their quality of life. Destitution and ill health could lead to rampant devastation of life of aged people under such circumstances.

India has been among the enlightened nations which recognised the need for social security during old age quite early. The Provident Fund Act was introduced way back in 1925 for select public enterprises. We have the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act (EPFMP) of 1952 which covers 177 industries today. From 1995, workers covered under the EPFMP Act, 1952 are also covered by the Employees Pension Scheme. While these have been laudable steps, and are serving the working class well, their coverage is woefully small, with only 11 percent of the working population in India covered by them.
There is also the Public Provident Fund (PPF) scheme for self employed and those not covered by the EPFMP Act. Though good in intention, the PPF has not been well publicised, and as a consequence, its clientele is basically confined to large cities. It is not easily accessible either.

We are grateful to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India for initiating Project OASIS, Old Age Social and Income Security, for focusing on this vital and emerging area of concern, and to comprehensively examine the existing institutional mechanism and make recommendations for concrete action that the Government should undertake.

I was asked to chair the Project OASIS Expert Committee comprising of the following members: Anand Bordia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; R.S. Kaushik, Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Ministry of Labour; C.S. Rao, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Ajay Shah, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; A.P. Singh, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; and Nalin Thakor. Gautam Bhardwaj of Invest India Economic Foundation served as the Member-Secretary of the Committee.

The Committee sponsored some research studies by experts on various aspects of a social security system and organised a technical conference to discuss these findings by inviting experts in the profession, senior executives from financial institutions and the government, and practitioners in the industry. The conference was also attended by experts from The World Bank. These research studies will shortly be published in book form.

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