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Social Issues › Vulnerable sections

The elderly

India's ageing population, the law on the maintenance of parents and senior citizens, and the schemes for their care.

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StandardPrelims and Mains30 Jun 2026

India had about 10 crore people aged 60 and above in 2011; the government expects about 23 crore by 2036, some 15 per cent of the population, and 31.9 crore by 2050.
The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) found that the old are more often women than men, with 1,065 women for every 1,000 men aged 60 and above, and that 54 per cent of elderly women are widows.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, in force since December 2007, makes children and relatives who inherit a senior citizen's property liable to maintain them, through a tribunal that can order up to ₹10,000 a month, and lets a parent take back property given away on condition of care.

The Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2024, released on 20 May 2026, put the share of people aged 60 and above at 9.7 per cent, up from 8.6 per cent in 2014 and rising in every State; Kerala's share is 15 per cent and Tamil Nadu's rose from 10.6 to 14.2 per cent.
The figures put fresh weight on a reform that has stalled: the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019, would have removed the ₹10,000 ceiling, cut the time for payment from 30 days to 15, and made abuse of a senior citizen an offence alongside abandonment, with three to six months' imprisonment or a fine of up to ₹10,000. It lapsed with the 17th Lok Sabha.

Ageing is arriving unevenly: the southern States have the age structure of much older societies, while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh remain young, so the need for care moves south first.
Old age is poorer and more female: most old women are widows with little income of their own, and the central old age pension, ₹200 a month from 60 to 79, has not been raised in years; States add their own amounts.
The family is shrinking: lower fertility and migration mean fewer children near ageing parents, and the 2007 Act's answer, a duty on children enforced by a tribunal, assumes a family that is often no longer there.
Care is a market and a job: the NITI Aayog report Senior Care Reforms in India (2024) put the silver economy at about ₹73,000 crore, and the care workforce it needs is mostly unpaid women today.

Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY) (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment)

The umbrella for senior citizens' welfare; its Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens funds 696 old age homes and other care homes run by non governmental bodies (August 2025).
Includes the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (from 1 April 2017): free aids and assistive devices for seniors below the poverty line or with income up to ₹15,000 a month.
Includes Elderline, 14567, the national helpline for senior citizens, from 1 October 2021.

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY for 70 and above (29 October 2024, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

Health cover of ₹5 lakh a year for every person aged 70 and above, regardless of income, through the Ayushman Vay Vandana card; about 6 crore seniors in 4.5 crore families.

Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (National Social Assistance Programme, Ministry of Rural Development)

₹200 a month for people below the poverty line aged 60 to 79, ₹500 from 80; about 2.21 crore beneficiaries.

National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (2010-11, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

Geriatric clinics and wards in district hospitals; covers all 713 health districts.

Prelims: the 2007 Act and its ₹10,000 ceiling; the lapsed 2019 Amendment Bill; AVYAY, the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, Elderline 14567; PM-JAY for 70 and above; the old age pension of ₹200 and ₹500; LASI's 1,065 sex ratio; 9.7 per cent aged 60 and above in 2024.
Mains: "India will grow old before it grows rich." Examine the adequacy of India's legal and welfare framework for its elderly.

Sources

Settled facts (dates of Acts, constitutional provisions, standing definitions) are from standard references.

Early release of elderly and terminally ill prisoners · on Criminal justice: the new criminal laws, police, prisons and bail
Exam lens: Articles 72 and 161; prisons in List II; the Undertrial Review Committees ordered in Re Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons (2016); the Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023.