THIRUVANANTHAPRAM: The Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS) has resumed disbursement of pension for persons living with HIV in the state.
The disbursement of pension comes in the wake of the recent protest organised by HIV positive people were not being given pension for the past three years. “KSACS has received '12 crore from the government to clear the pension dues of the HIV positive patients. We have already started transferring the amount to their bank accounts,” said KSACS project director Dr Ramesh R. There are 10,000 HIV patients enrolled under the pension scheme in the state under which Rs 1,000 is deposited in each person’s account every month.
The amount includes travel fare for getting treatment at the ART Centres every month. Only those persons who are registered with the ART centres and are currently on Anti Retroviral Therapy are eligible for the KSACS pension. A section of HIV positive persons had alleged that despite finance minister allocating Rs 30 crore in the budget, the KSACS had failed to settle the dues. However KSACS said the government had only transferred the amount recently. At present the state has around 11,579 people living with HIV AIDS. The pension scheme was launched by Oommen Chandy government in 2011.
According to authorities, many HIV positive people are still out of the coverage of pension scheme. One of the major reason behind the low number of beneficiary is the stringent procedure conditions attached to availing the pension facility.
Since bank account is mandatory to get pension, not many are willing to expose their HIV status.
