India's National Policy on Senior Citizens: An Overview

The Government of India announced ‘National Policy on Older’ in the year 1999. The

Central and State governments have made provisions like pensions, travel concessions,

income tax relief, medical benefit, extra interest on savings, financial support for homes, day

care centers, Medical vans, Help line and security etc. The Ministry of Social Justice and

Empowerment piloted landmark legislation to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and

Senior Citizen Act 2007 which is being promulgated by States and Union Territories in

stages.

While considering the India’s national policy on older persons of 2011 and the

Senior Citizen Act 2007, the paper has following objectives: 1) To access the major

objectives set by Government of India in National Policy on senior citizen 2011 and find out

difficulties while implementing such objectives. 2) To suggest corrective measures for better

implementation of Senior Citizen Act 2007.

The paper is based on secondary data and apart from policy documents on senior

citizens and Senior Citizen Act 2007 and other library sources.

‘National Policy on Senior Citizens 2011’ has covered major aspects which gives

helping hand to senior citizens, but while considering the overall scenario of Indian structure,

the policy is unable to give justice to such senior citizens who belongs to lowest rungs of the

society. The Indian bureaucracy is also one of the hurdles in policy implementation.