Pension for journalists

For the very first time in the history of Nepali journalism, the government has begun distributing a monthly-basis pension to senior journalists on their age ground and service period. Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki Monday began the service by distributing a pension amount of Rs. 10,000, and Rs. 5,000 per month to three senior journalists Padam Bhakta Kharel, 77, Chiranjeevi Aryal, 67, and Nirodh Raj Pandey.

The pension amount to be received by the senior or old-age journalists would remain under the various criteria or standards, their service period in the journalism sector, and their personal age ground, according to Director General Gogan Hamal of the Department of Information and Broadcasting.

The Department of Information and Broadcasting has formed a fund of Rs. 60 million for this pension programme, and from the interest to be received from it, the Department has managed to provide pension amounts to senior journalists.

The Journalists’ Retirement Fund Operation Standards 2021 has categorised the distribution of the pension amount into two fields- one is senior or oldage journalists and journalists affected by the armed insurgency. Section 5 of the Standards, has mentioned different age limits and division of monthly pension amount to be received by them. Under the provision, journalists from age group 65-69 would get Rs. 5,000 per month, Rs. 7,000 from age group 70-75, Rs. 10,000 from age group 76-80 and Rs. 15,000 from age group 81 to above.

Similarly, it has been mentioned that journalists affected and killed during the insurgency in the country would be provided Rs. 10,000 as a monthly pension amount to their families for seven years right from the date of the first amount they had received.

Also, those journalists who had become completely disabled during the time of insurgency would be provided Rs. 10,000 till their lifetime as per the recommendation of their complete disability and based on red-card of the disability distributed by the government.