Bhubaneswar: The Talaki Mahila Sahayata Samiti Thursday staged a demonstration at lower PMG here, demanding pension for 2,800 poor and divorced women in the state.
About 2,000 divorced women took part in the demonstration led by the Samiti chairperson Saera Mirza.
Mirza said: “The state government had paid pension to 616 out of 2,800 divorced women in 2007. The pension disbursement continued till March 2014. For the pension of 546 women, there was an allocation in the 2010 budget.
“Later, no pension was provided to these women. In order to get justice, the Samiti filed a PIL at the High Court.”
Hearing the PIL, the High Court December 10, 2018 directed the state government to start giving pensions by January 1, 2019, she added.
“The state government is claiming that it is providing assistance to divorced women. But the real fact is that the women are fighting for justice. If the government does not pay pension to divorced women, we will intensify our demonstration by taking it onto the highways,” she cautioned.
PNN