Most of the senior citizens in our country are not aware that there is a NATIONAL POLICY ON SENIOR CITIZEN in place, and this was announced by Atal Bihari Bajpayee led NDA government in the year 1999. The policy envisages State support to ensure financial and food security, healthcare, shelter and other needs of older persons, equitable share in development, protection against abuse and exploitation, and availability of services to improve the quality of their lives. As compared to the Western world, in India, the family still plays the first institution to take care of its elderly members. Moreover, the Government of India is implementing various schemes and programmes , through different Ministries and Departments for the care and welfare of senior citizens. These include shelter, food, healthcare, financial security, social security, awareness, recreation etc. The details are listed below:
1 The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implements a Central scheme of Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC) under which grants in aid are given for running and maintenance of Senior Citizens Homes (Old Age Homes)/Continuous Care Homes, Mobile Medicare Units etc. to the Implementing Agencies such as State Governments/Union Territory Administrations (through Registered Societies)/ Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)/Local Bodies; Non Governmental/Voluntary Organisations.
2 Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY) is a Central Sector Scheme funded from Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund. Under the scheme of RVY, aids and assistive living devices are provided to BPL category or those senior citizens who earn less than Rs 15,000 per month and suffer from age related disabilities such as low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth and loco-motor disabilities. The aids and assistive devices viz. walking sticks, elbow crutches, walker/crutches, tripods/quadpods, hearing aids, wheelchairs, artificial dentures and spectacles are provided to eligible beneficiaries, free of cost. The scheme is implemented by Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO), which is public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
3 National Helpline for Senior Citizen (14567)- this National Helpline is created by the Ministry for the senior citizens to address their grievances. This helpline was launched by VP of India on the occasion of the International Day for Older Persons on 1st October 2021. This Elder line offers services to senior citizens through toll free number 14567.
4 State Action Plan for Senior Citizens (SAPSrC)- Appreciating the critical and significant role of States/UTs, each one is expected to plan and strategise taking into account their local considerations and frame their own State Action Plans for the welfare of senior citizens. This State Action Plan may comprise a long term strategy for five years as well as Annual Action Plans. Department of Social Justice and Empowerment shall release funds to the States/UTs for formulation and implementation of their action plans.
5 SAGE– To promote out-of-the-box and innovative solutions for the commonly faced problems, innovative start-ups will be identified and encouraged for developing products, processes and services for the welfare of the elderly under this initiative. The selected start-ups/start-up ideas can be provided equity support of up to Rs 1 Cr per project while ensuring that the total government equity in the start-up should not exceed 49%. For this, the SAGE portal (http://sage.dosje.gov.in ) has been launched in June 2021.
6 Under Umbrella Scheme of Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana, Ministry has included awareness generation/sensitization programmes for school/college students for strengthening Inter-generational bonding. It also aims to provide information and educational material to individuals, families and groups for better understanding of the ageing process so as to enable them to handle issues relating to it.
Friends, you will observe from the above the provisions specified under the National Policy on Senior Citizens are mainly meant for BPL families living in rural sectors. Here nothing is there for seniors citizens belonging to middle class except for the phone helpline. Why can not the present and future governments at the Centre think for the benefits of urban senior citizens like more bank interest rates than the presently given (should be applicable to rural sector also), subsidized food items, concessional/free travel in local buses/local trains, metro trains, concessional travel for going outstation by railways and Air, concessional premiums for healthcare policies, etc. These benefits should be given to senior citizens besides the other benefits covered in the senior citizen policy.
The main problem is that more than 90% of population of our country is not covered by any pension scheme, so the seniors have to save in their working period only to take care of their old age. Sizeable percentage of these population have been income tax payer during their professional career but in their senior years they are getting least benefits from the government. In my opinion the National Policy on Senior Citizen should go in for total revamp. The present policy was drafted about quarter century back and most of the provisions specified in them are losing their relevance.
Waiting for your feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
29th April 2024