Getting Ready for the Welfare Schemes

 

Any information about the Tamil Nadu Govt welfare schemes arrives and travels like lightning in this part of the world. I am sure it is the same in most other parts of the state.  And every time it travels, it gets added some information with every link – as expected

Recently two schemes raging are:

•     The Pongal 2023 gift by the government in cash and kind
•     The monthly Rs.1000 to the female heads of family, belonging to the lower income group

To my knowledge, the ration card is in no way linked to the aadhar or the bank account yet.

There is no information from the state government on either of the welfare schemes. Still the rumour is that, the cash from the state government will be given only if the aadhar is linked to the bank account - and that they need to take all the three – aadhar, ration card and the bank passbook to the ration shop to avail the cash gift.

A recent visit to the lone nationalised bank, catering to about 15 surrounding hamlets, left me flabbergasted at the sight of the crowd overflowing the bank premises. The bank staff were totally overwhelmed, catering to the requests to link the aadhar to the bank account.

This had been advised by the banks for some time now, not necessarily for the welfare gift – but as a directive from the central government. Some had already done it,  but why this sudden surge ?

The process goes like this :

•  The people bring the aadhar car and the bank passbook with the request.
•        The staff advise them to get a photo and a colour xerox of the aadhar.
•        The queue moves to these two shops.
•        After getting these two, get back to the bank
•        At this point some find out they have already completed this process and the aadhar is linked to the account
•        For the rest the linking process is done using bio-metric method of authentication.
•        If the person is too old and fingerprints have faded, the OTP is sent to the mobile attached to the aadhar.
•        If the person has the mobile in hand, the bank staff  get the phone and find out the OTP as most of them do not know how to retrieve or read the OTP.
•        If by any chance, the phone is not available in hand and is somewhere else, the bank staff try to contact the person who currently has the phone to get the OTP
•        If the mobile number is surrendered because due to age, the person is not able to hear AND the finger print is feeble – then God save him or her. Bank says , nothing can be done.  Cannot totally believe this though.
•        Then the people come to the bank everyday for the next week till they confirm the process is complete

The bank predicts this is going to continue till Pongal .

The more worrying thing seems to be, many seem to believe that they will not get the cash gift or the monthly amount if they have a balance in the bank. So they are drawing the money from the bank leaving the minimum balance in their account. Praying to God that the hard earned cash is safe with them, and is used for the purpose it was saved in the first place.

And hope the money coming from abroad is not impacted due to this

The taluka office some twenty kilometers from here is also swamped with women – women of all ages - all with a request to make them the “head of family” in the ration card . The information circulating round here being, the monthly amount of Rs.1000 is given to the women, only if they are the “head of family”. 

Rumour mill is strong and not wanting to be left behind is  equally strong

 

 

A True Love Story in the Neighbourhood

 

The boy is the son of a house help around here , a single parent. He completed  the basic school education and after a few years of not being sure of what to do, he attended a monthlong training on construction in the nearby town.

The girl is  from a tiny hamlet in Thanjavur district, which is pretty far away from here. Her mother is also a single parent and she has a younger brother who at the time was unsure of what to do in life

The girl also happened to attend some training in the same location this boy was attending . Looks like it was love at first sight for both of them

The mother everyday meticulously packed lunch for the boy, paid for the transportation  hoping against hope , the boy will settle down in some work soon

Training completed, the boy was back in the village started working in now and then masonry work . The girl took up a job in a factory in Coimbatore and moved to the city , which is also pretty far away from here  

The boy and the girl were strongly committed and the advancement in technology helped them be in total regular communication .

Now that the boy was making some money, the mother started conversations about marriage. The boy for reasons known to us, rejected all the proposals she brought and at some point, the cat came out of the bag .

It was pandemonium from the boys side – the caste , the financial situation and several other things kicked in and the mother tried in vain every gimmick under the sun  to dissuade the boy.  The boy did not budge  and the mother had no other choice but to give in.

Knowing fully well, the girls side also will throw all tantrums for the same reasons , the mother son duo started thinking about how to perform the marriage.

One day, they brought the girl from the city to a relatives house in one of the surrounding hamlets to avoid the prying eyes of their neighbours . There in a totally new place, with totally new people the girl stayed for a little over a month – till the auspicious date for the marriage. Her family had no clue of this turn of events as she was maintaining the regular conversations with them and even continued to send the monthly amount to her family, now given by the boy’s mother .

The marriage was a grand affair with the loud speakers blaring for two days, sumptuous feast for the neighbours , all expenses born by the boy’s mother -  with the girls family not knowing about any of the happenings here . The boy’s mother would have spent a substantial amount on the marriage , probably she would have received some or most of the amount through the ‘moi virundhu’ (cash gifts to the marriage)

In a few months , the girl became  pregnant. All along she had been sending the regular amount for her family maintenance , given by her now mother-in-law and also was having regular conversations with them so as not to raise any suspicions. At this juncture, the mother-in-law decided this was the time to break the news to the girl’s family. And they did and as expected , all hell broke loose. A bunch of people from the girl’s side came here from Thanjavur with seething anger, but the mother-in-law was ready to face it and she had organised a big gathering of people to talk on her behalf.

Well – to cut the long story short, after much argument, everyone settled down and agreed to participate in the valaikappu aka baby shower.

 

It has been three years now. The boy and the girl  have a bubbly two year old  daughter and have settled into the rhythm of a routine normal life

Wishing them both a “happily ever after “