Problems of the Deprived Potential Beneficiaries to Avail of Social Assistance : An Evaluation in Chamarajanagar District

This paper aims at assessing the problems encountered by potential beneficiaries in availing of social assistance in Chamarajanagar district. A total of 182 potential beneficiaries were randomly selected for the study across the district (78 OAP,76 DWP and 28 PHP). They were administered a structured questionnaire on various aspects of the existing delivery system of social security scheme over a period of two months. Surprisingly 64.8 per cent of the poor people said to have not applied for the social assistance expressly showing either they are ignorant or they have no means to apply. Results revealed that 81.3 per cent of them were BPL and 87.9 per cent were illiterates, and they had to depend on village leaders (67.2 per cent), and only 7.8 per cent of officials assisted for social assistance. It was observed that they face many problems from the time of submitting to processing of applications and 57.8 per cent of the potential beneficiaries were deprived of benefits. Majority of them expressed difficulty in getting the application (85.9 per cent), about 84.4 per cent of them had to spent money to procure documents. Further, 65 per cent of respondents are dependent on village leaders to obtain the documents and 98.2 per cent of them again had to spend money for processing the application from out of paltry savings from their casual labour. The authors investigate and discuss why a large number of potential beneficiaries did not apply and those who applied did not succeed in getting pension for several years. Finally from the study suggestions emerge to overcome the difficulties that the deprived potential beneficiaries face in the existing delivery system of social security scheme.