UPA recycles NDA scheme
Aam Admi Bima Yojana already operational for many years

The Aam Admi Bima Yojana (AABY) that the UPA Government launched on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday is not new. It is the continuation of another scheme, Janshree Bima Yojana (JBY), launched in 2000 under the NDA rule.

So keen is the Government to hide the truth that it has not even announced the winding up of the old scheme before floating the old wine in a new bottle.

Except the change in the name and the amount of insurance, the premium and other conditions are the same as in Janshree Bima Yojana.

Interestingly, the Government, which announced the AABY after the August 30 Cabinet meeting, did not announce the closure of JBY.

Also, the AABY is not fully a Centrally-sponsored programme, as the money of the premium has to be borne out by the States and the Centre equally.

Top sources in the Government told The Pioneer that even in the August 30 Cabinet meeting, the issue was raised by some of the Ministers questioning the credit to be taken by the Centre for the scheme, but the intervention was overruled.

The AABY provides for insurance of head of the family or an earning member of the family of rural landless household between the age of 18 to 59 years against natural as well as accidental death and partial/permanent disability. The annual premium payable per member is Rs 200, of which 50 per cent shall be paid by the Central Government and the remaining 50 per cent by the State Government.

The JBY offers cover to persons below the poverty line or marginally above it with natural or accidental death and disability benefits. Fifty per cent of the premium is borne out of the Social Security Fund while the balance 50 per cent has to be paid by the members/voluntary organisations or Government Department. The annual premium is Rs 200 for JBY too.

The difference between the two programmes is that while the AABY puts the responsibility of paying the 50 per cent premium to the State Government, the JBY kept it vague that could be paid by the beneficiary himself or the voluntary organisations or by any other Government department.

However, for both the programmes, the operator was the Life Insurance Corporation of India, which would draw the 50 per cent premium from the Social Security Fund of the Central Government.

The benefit under the AABY is Rs 30,000 on natural death, Rs 75,000 on accidental death and Rs 75,000 on permanent disability on loss of two eyes or two limbs or loss of one eye and one limb. Under this scheme, the benefit on partial permanent disability is Rs 37,500 with loss of one eye or one limb in an accident.

The previous JBY originally provided for an insurance cover of Rs 20,000 on natural death and on death or total permanent disability due to accident, the benefit was Rs 50,000.

However, the permanent disability or death due to accident benefit was increased to Rs 75,000 with effect from August 15, 2006. Again, on partial permanent disability due to accident, the original benefit of Rs 25,000 was increased to Rs 37,500 with effect from August 15, 2006.

The AABY also would provide Rs 300 per quarter per child as scholarship to the two children of the beneficiaries studying in IX to XII Standards.

Under JBY too, a scholarship scheme, Shiksha Sahayog Yojana, was launched on December 31, 2001 for the benefit of children of members of Janshree Bima Yojana. In this scheme, students studying in IX to XII standards whose parents are covered under Janshree Bima Yojana were eligible for a scholarship of Rs 300 per quarter per child for maximum period of four years. The restriction of benefit to two children per member was in this scheme too.

While announcing the programme on August 30, the Union Government envisaged the creation of a fund of Rs 1,000 crore to be operated by LIC for meeting the liability of the Central Government towards its share of premium payment. But till March 31, 2006, the balance of Rs 808 crore was already in the social security fund under JBY.

Again, while under the newly announced AABY, the Government asserted that in the first year of its launch, approximately 70 to 80 lakh rural landless households would be covered under the scheme, already 39.87 lakh had been covered up to March 31, 2006.

In addition, while in the erstwhile JBY, there was a facility for the people to pay the premium and avail the benefit, but in the new replica, the people have to be at the mercy of the State Governments to pay the premium.