Atal Pension Yojana (APY), the flagship social security scheme of the government has completed five years of successful implementation.
APY was launched on 9 May 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The aim of the scheme is to deliver old age income security, particularly to the workers in the unorganized sector.
The scheme still remains relevant for addressing the challenges of the rapidly increasing aging population of India.
The scheme provides the guarantee of minimum pension after 60 years of age.
The scheme covers all the states and Union Territories (UTs) with male to female subscription ratio of 57:43.
APY can be subscribed by any Indian citizen in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account.
The scheme provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs.1,000 to Rs.5,000 on attaining 60 years of age. The amount of pension is guaranteed for a lifetime to the spouse on the death of the subscriber. In the event of the death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.
