Deva/Baldev, aged 67 years from Kesarpura village (Mavashiya Panchayat, Shrinagar block, Ajmer, Rajasthan) has applied for the old age pension one year back with the support from LIFE project staff and orientation on different government schemes at village level.
One year has passed but Deva has not received any pension from the government. He has shared his concern to the LIFE project staff Mr. Hemant (the field animator for the Kesarpura village) and Mr. Hemant has guided him on the concept of RTI (Right To Information Act) and suggested him to file an RTI to the concerned department (Social Justice and right department, Ajmer) regarding delay in pension and asking the reason for the same.
Deva has filed RTI on 16th June 2011 and within the week of his RTI his pension has started and he has received the pension of last 10 months at a time. He has received a total sum of Rs. 7645/- in his post office pass book for the old-age pension.
Now Deva is happy and sharing his knowledge on RTI to others and smiling with the thinking that in this old-age age he would be able to survive in better way with this support…he has shared that he has taken some money from his neighbour for some health treatment now he has paid that money back to the person with this pension money….for him projects like LIFE are really changing his life….
