Hyderabad, Sep 23rd Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Sept 23 announced that the 'Abhaya Hastham' scheme, which will become operational from 1November, would be renamed as 'YSR Abhayahastham'. He said the scheme was the pet scheme of Dr Reddy and the government plans to hand over individual policy bonds to one crore women on November 1, 2009, coinciding with the state's Formation Day, as part of the scheme. A MOU will be signed in this regard between LIC and the state government in a few days.

The scheme ensures dignity for women in old age. It is also a co-contributory pension and insurance scheme for Self Help Group (SHG) women. It is a long term partnership between poor women and the government. SHG women who are above 18 years of age are the beneficiaries of the scheme and they contribute Rs 30 per month. The government would also contribute the same amount and LIC manages the fund to secure better returns.

The scheme provides pension to women on crossing 60 years of age till death and the nominee is entitled to receive the corpus on the death of woman, death and disability insurance coverage up to 59 years and scholarships to children. For instance, Women who contribute from the age of 18 will get a pension of Rs 2,118 each per month on attaining the age of 60 with a corpus of Rs 2,62,959, those who contribute from the age of 25 will get a pension of Rs 1113 each per month with a corpus of Rs 1,41,890.