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Social Stratification

Notes Food and Nutrition Board
The Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), a non-statutory ministerial wing of the Ministry of Food
was transferred to the Department of Women and Child Development on 1 April, 1993 in pursuance
of the National Nutrition Policy which was adopted by the Government in 1993 under the aegis of
this Department. The FNB has four Regional Offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and
43 Community Food and Nutrition Extension Units (CENEUs) located in 29 States/UTs. Some of
the important areas of FNB activities are nutrition education and orientation, training in home-
scale preservation of fruits and vegetables, monitoring of supplementary feeding under ICDs,
development and distribution of educational/training material, mass awareness campaigns,
development and promotion of nutritious foods, fortification of foods, food analysis and
standardisation, research and development and follow up action on National Nutrition Policy.
Information and Mass Education
Concerted efforts are being made to disseminate information about issues relating to the
development of women and children through all available modes of communication to target
groups and community in general. Outdoor publicity activities are also undertaken to inform,
educate and motivate people for bringing about attitudinal changes to achieve social development
goals. Specific objectives include the mobilisation of public opinion on issues pertaining to girl
child, holistic development of children, empowerment of women, early child development,
nutrition, equal status for women and social evils like child marriage, dowry, sexual abuse of girl
child, exploitation of women and children, etc.
Pension and Pensioner’s Welfare
The Department of Pension and Pensioner’s Welfare is the nodal agency of the Government of
India for formulation of a general policy on pension and other retirement benefits, as also for
redressal of grievances on retirement benefits. A number of steps have been taken in the last few
years for streamlining the pension administration system. In pursuance of the recommendation of
the Fifth Central Pay Commission the rates of pension, family pension, etc., have revised as under:
(i) Minimum pension/Family pension has been fixed at Rs. 1,275 per month subject to condition
that the actual amount of pension/family pension should not be less than 50 per cent and 30 per
cent respectively of the minimum of revised scale of pay of the post from which the pensioner has
retired; (ii) The commutation may be allowed up to 40 per cent of pension; (iii) The ceiling of
gratuity has been raised to Rs. 3.5 lakh; (iv) The definition of the family has been broadened to
include parents, for entitlement to family pension with effect from 1 January, 1998; (v) The ceiling
of amount payable under the Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme has been enhanced from
Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 60,000; (vi) A fixed medical allowance of Rs. 100 per month has been sanctioned
to all Central Government Pensioners who are residing in areas not covered by the Central
Government Health Scheme; (vii) CPF retires of the period from 18 November, 1960 to 31 December,
1985 who have completed 20 years of service prior to superannuation have been allowed exgratia
at the rate of Rs. 600 per month with effect from 1 November, 1997; (viii) In pursuance of
observations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Ministry of Home Affairs in para
61 of its 44th Report, detailed instructions have been issued for timely payment of pension and
retirement dues to the retiring employees of Union Government. The O.M. also makes a provision
for fixing responsibility for recovery of penal interest paid on delayed amount of gratuity to the
retiring employees from the salary of concerned dealing official/supervisor and Head of Office in
proportion; (ix) Employed family pensioners have been allowed Dearness Relief (D.R.) on their
family pension with effect from 18 July, 1997. In the case of re-employed pensioners D.R. on
pension is payable only if pay on re-employment has been fixed at the minimum of the scale of re-
employed post, and (x) Central Government servants who had drawn lump sum payment on
absorption in PSUs/ Autonomous Bodies are entitled to restoration of l/3rd commuted portion of

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