BY MADHUSUDHAN TIMALSINA
Kavre, April. 14: Temal Rural Municipality of Kavre has started providing social security allowance to single men or widowers.
The rural municipality has implemented the scheme as per the policy, programme and budget of the fiscal year 2021/22.

Chairman of the rural municipality Salam Singh Tamang informed that social security allowance had been provided to the single men aged between 60 and 69 years.According to him, single men would get monthly Rs. 2,000 as social security allowance.

The government has been providing allowances to elderly people, Dalit children, persons with disabilities and single women.
Deputy Chairperson Durga Maya Tamang informed that currently 100 men are benefitting from the allowance in the rural municipality.

The local government decided to provide monthly allowance to single men because they also have to go through financial problems as single women do, said Tamang.
“Hence, we decided to include the single men in the social security scheme to help ease their daily livelihood,” she added.

According to her, the municipality has recently distributed social security allowance of nine months to 76 single men.
The municipality has made arrangements to immediately provide allowance to 24 single men, who are disabled and could not visit the municipality office to receive the allowance, she added. Chief administrative officer of the rural municipality Kedar Prasad Dhakal said that the allowance was distributed in accordance with section 3 Rules of Social Security Scheme Operating Procedure.

The procedure stipulates that the widowers or single men aged between 60 and 69 years are eligible to get the social security allowance.The Government of Nepal has been providing social security allowances to senior citizens aged above 70 years.

Temal Rural Municipality, however, is not the first local unit to provide social security allowance to single men.
Melauli Municipality in Baitadi district has been providing allowance to single men or widowers while Ichchakamana Rural Municipality of Chitwan has recently decided to provide allowance to the single men from the current fiscal year.