AVYAY Scheme: Centre Releases Rs 77.98 Crore For Senior Citizen Welfare Projects

The central government has released Rs 77.98 crore as a grant-in-aid towards the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC), under the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY). The disbursed funds are aimed at enhancing service delivery and care and welfare interventions for senior citizens in India. The released funds are for the quarter ending September 30, 2026, and cover 755 different projects for elderly welfare.

AVYAY, formerly known as the National Action Plan for Senior Citizens (NAPSrC), is a Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’s (MoSJE) umbrella scheme to promote ‘ageing with dignity’ and ‘ageing in place’ by ensuring shelter, food, healthcare, and recreational facilities for the elderly and creating a support system so that older people can live safely, independently, and with dignity.

According to the 2011 Census, India had 103.8 million (10.38 crore) people aged 60 and above, and this is projected to rise to 230 million (23 crore) by 2036.

The changing family and societal structure makes it vital to establish structured community-level support when the family is not around. The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) findings draw attention to the functional limitations of older persons and highlight the need to put in place reliable healthcare, personal care, and community support.

Amid increasing urbanisation and children moving to other cities for work, the nuclear family structure is growing, and the traditional family support structure is diminishing. Therefore, institutional care facilities and community support are becoming crucial alternatives for older persons for their various healthcare, emotional, and social needs.

To implement its vision of elderly welfare, the scheme combines direct institutional support, state-level support, and district-level monitoring to ensure social inclusion of older persons and their dignity and independence. Under the ‘ageing in place’ model, the scheme focuses on creating and maintaining an environment where senior citizens can continue living safely within their homes and communities and are supported with specialised community-based services.

The scheme focuses on strengthening the institutional capacity of the state governments, local bodies, local communities, and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to offer community-level care and support.

Under the State Action Plan for Senior Citizens (SAPSrC) component of the scheme, the State governments and Union Territory governments can plan their own tailored welfare action plans and execute them to meet their local requirements, for which financial support can be provided by the central ministry.