BANEPA, Feb 10: In its effort to facilitate numerous women living difficult lives owing to unfortunate reasons, Panauti Municipality has introduced a special package of social allowance for such persons.
Unmarried women below 35 years of age, divorcees or whose husbands have disappeared since more than 15 years have been included in the list of beneficiaries.
Unsustainable Burden of Social Security Allowances
“As per the existing provisions, divorced and unmarried women become eligible for allowances only after they reach 60 years. However, there was no provision for allowances for the women whose husbands have disappeared since long,” said Bhim Neupane, mayor of the municipality, adding, “The attempt is to make these women feel the existence of the local government.”
The new work plan has, however, not specified the age limit for the women whose husbands have disappeared or gone out of contact. However, it has been stated that they will be eligible for the allowance if their husbands have disappeared for more than 15 years.
“In order to claim their allowance, women belonging to all these categories can submit applications at the local unit. As of now, we have been collecting details from all 12 wards.” Those who will submit their application will receive their allowances from the second quarter of the current fiscal year.
“As per our speculation, there must be at least 15 to 20 single women in each ward. So, in that way, there can be around 150 beneficiaries for the current fiscal year and we have already allocated budget for that,” said Chief Administrative Officer Indra Prasad Adhikari.
As for now, the municipality has decided to provide Rs 1,000 to such women as allowance.
