I was born in 1958 in Meerut, where my father had a small cloth shop and my mother was a homemaker. I did my BA in Meerut. My father was very proud; not many girls in our mohalla studied that much. At 20 I started teaching at a private primary school for Rs 250 a month. They called it a job, but there was no contract. I gave most of it to my mother.
In 1983 I married and moved to Delhi. For twelve years I raised our two children and looked after my mother-in-law until she passed in 1993. I taught tuition at home. It was small money, but it was mine. My husband was a clerk at a private company and had PF, but I had no savings in my own name.
Once the children were in school, I started stitching suits and blouses for women in our colony in East Delhi. It grew from about Rs 3,000 a month to around Rs 15,000, more in wedding season. I had no pension. I saved through a kitty committee and bought small gold pieces. Gold was my bank.
In 2012 my husband died suddenly of a heart attack. That was the hardest time. I sold some gold and worked till midnight on the machine, and I kept the tailoring going with one helper girl. I began getting a small EPS widow pension from his PF. In 2020 COVID stopped all orders and my eyesight became weak, so I stopped.
Now I live with my son. I get the EPS widow pension of about Rs 1,800, the Delhi government widow pension of about Rs 2,500 and rent from one room. On my own it is not enough, but with my son we manage. I never thought a woman needed a pension. I would have opened something in my own name from the tailoring money. Girls especially, keep some savings in your own name. Life can change in one day.
"I worked my whole life, at school, at home, on the machine, but the only pension I get is because my husband had a job."