Asrar Jamai, a 78-year-old poet, is fighting a bizarre battle for survival. For the past one-and-a-half years he has been making the rounds of the Social Welfare Department office to prove to the officials that he is alive, but no one seems to believe him.
According to Mr. Jamai, the department has declared him “dead” because of some confusion and has stopped his old age pension. He says he has submitted all relevant documents -- PAN card, Aadhaar card -- but they do not seem to be enough to change his “dead” status.
“I told the officials that I am standing in front of you, what else can be the biggest proof?” he says. “The official replied that he knows I am alive, but not other official knows of it.”
Mr. Jamai survives on the money he earns from his recitals at Mushairas. He lives in a small, rented room in the ever-crowded Batla House locality in Okhla. He has penned three books in Urdu and many of the unsold copies are stacked neatly in one corner of the room next to his cot where a collection of black fur caps are lying next to the pillow. A black Sherwani hangs on the electric wire that lights the only bulb in the room. He says he pays a little over Rs.1,000 as monthly rent for the room.
The pension he received was Rs.1,500 every month. “It may seem little for others but at least I could pay my rent with it,” he says, adding, “But now it’s not about money, it’s about my existence.”
Narrating his ordeal, he says that it took him more than five years to get registered with the department and start getting the pension. His passbook shows he starting receiving the pension from March 5, 2011 and the last time it was credited to his account was on April 22, 2013. “Since then I am fighting to prove that I am alive.”
According to officials, the department conducts a survey every year to ensure that the pensioner is alive and stays in the city. Moreover, the pensioner has to fill a form every year. “It seems either Mr. Jamai did not fill the form or there is an error from the department’s side. We will get it checked and if there is an error from our side, we will get it rectified,” said an official.
The area MLA, Amanatullah Khan, said he will take up the matter with the department.
