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The fifth meeting of the National Council for Senior Citizens was chaired by Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Virendra Kumar at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.
The Council reviewed the implementation of Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY), deliberated on the extension of health insurance under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY to senior citizens irrespective of financial background, and considered a proposal to include geriatric caregiver services in the Central Government Health Scheme rate card.
The Minister launched the e-book 'SNEHA — Stories of Nurturing, Engagement, Happiness and Active Ageing', covering the Department's work from October 2024 to June 2026, and the Council noted two digital initiatives: the JEEVAN app and the SHATAYU platform.
Bring the Centre's senior-citizen programmes under one umbrella covering financial security, health and nutrition, shelter, protection of life and property, active ageing and the silver economy
Key: An umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, formerly the National Action Plan for Senior Citizens (NAPSrC), operating from 2021-22. Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, SAGE, SACRED, Elderline and geriatric care components sit within it.
Provide assisted-living devices to senior citizens with age-related disability or infirmity
Key: A Central Sector Scheme within the AVYAY umbrella, supplying physical aids and assisted-living devices — walking sticks, hearing aids, spectacles, wheelchairs and similar — to restore near-normal bodily function.
Support start-ups building products and services for the elderly — the 'silver economy'
Key: A component under AVYAY that identifies and funds enterprises in senior care, treating ageing as a market to be served rather than only a welfare burden.
Connect retired professionals with work suited to their skills and experience
Key: A portal under AVYAY through which senior citizens register for re-employment opportunities — the 'active and productive ageing' limb of the policy.
Give senior citizens and their families a single point of access to welfare schemes and services
Key: Joint Elderly Empowerment and Virtual Assistance Network — a mobile platform announced at this meeting, designed for unified and user-friendly access.
Make trained geriatric caregivers available to households
Key: Senior Holistic Care Assistance and Training for Your Utility — a dedicated digital platform built around 'ageing at place', the principle that older people should be able to remain in their own homes rather than move into institutional care.
Provide health insurance cover to older people regardless of income
Key: The Council deliberated on implementation of the extension of AB-PMJAY coverage to senior citizens irrespective of financial background. The extension announced on 29 October 2024 covers all citizens aged 70 years and above through the Ayushman Vay Vandana Card, giving ₹5 lakh of annual cover; those in families already covered under AB-PMJAY receive an additional top-up of up to ₹5 lakh a year for themselves.
The principal legislation on the subject, brought by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It makes it a legal obligation for children and heirs to maintain parents and senior citizens through a monthly allowance, and provides for Maintenance Tribunals — presided over in practice by an officer of the rank of Revenue Divisional Officer at the sub-division level — to order and enforce that maintenance.
The earlier policy framework that first set out the state's commitments on the welfare of older persons and shaped the institutional architecture that AVYAY now operates.
A Directive Principle requiring the State, within its economic capacity, to make effective provision for public assistance in cases of old age, sickness and disablement — the constitutional anchor for old-age welfare policy.
The apex advisory body on the welfare of older persons. It reviews scheme implementation, considers recommendations from non-official members, states and line ministries, and drives inter-ministerial coordination on social security, institutional care, active ageing and capacity building. This was its fifth meeting.
The nodal ministry for senior citizens through its Senior Citizens Division, and the administrator of AVYAY and its component schemes.
The health scheme for central government employees and pensioners. Adding geriatric caregiver services to its rate card — the proposal discussed here — would set an official price for such care and make it reimbursable, with a signalling effect well beyond CGHS beneficiaries.
'Ageing at place' is the policy principle that older people should be supported to remain in their own homes and communities rather than move into old-age homes or institutions. It is cheaper than institutional care, generally produces better outcomes, and matches Indian household preference — but it only works if trained care is available at home, which is why SHATAYU is built as a marketplace for geriatric caregivers rather than as an information portal. The CGHS rate card proposal is the less visible half of the same idea: a rate card fixes an official price for a service and makes it reimbursable, which in turn creates a formal market, gives caregivers a wage benchmark and pulls the work out of the informal economy. India's stake in getting this right is demographic — the share of the population aged 60 and above was 8.6% at the 2011 Census and is projected to reach around 21% by 2050, so a care workforce that barely exists today has to be built within one working generation.
Simple Analogy: Publishing a rate card for home care does for caregiving what a published fare does for a taxi trip: it turns an informal favour into a service somebody can be paid for, priced, and held to a standard.
India is ageing before it becomes rich, so old-age social security is being built at the same time as the demographic dividend is being harvested — the two policy agendas compete for the same fiscal space.
Extending PM-JAY to older citizens regardless of income was the first major departure from the scheme's original poverty-targeting design, making age rather than income the eligibility criterion.
SAGE treats elderly care as a market for start-ups rather than only as welfare — the same reframing that underlies the CGHS rate card proposal.
Article 41 requires the State to make effective provision for public assistance in old age, sickness and disablement, giving these schemes a constitutional anchor even though they are not justiciable.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 makes family support a legal duty enforceable through Maintenance Tribunals — the coercive complement to these welfare schemes.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; Social Justice > Ageing
General Awareness > Government Schemes
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Social Security
Senior citizen schemes appear regularly in Prelims and SSC general awareness; the AB-PMJAY age extension has been heavily tested since 2024.
Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana — the umbrella scheme for senior citizens, formerly the National Action Plan for Senior Citizens, operating from 2021-22.
Senior-care Ageing Growth Engine — the AVYAY component supporting start-ups in elderly care.
Senior Able Citizens for Re-Employment in Dignity — the portal connecting retired professionals with work.
Joint Elderly Empowerment and Virtual Assistance Network — a mobile app for unified access to senior citizen schemes and services.
Senior Holistic Care Assistance and Training for Your Utility — a platform for engaging trained geriatric caregivers.
The principle of supporting older people to remain in their own homes rather than move to institutional care.