Maintenance And Welfare Of Parents And Senior Citizens Act: Are Amendments In The Pipeline?

The Maintenance and Welfare of the Senior Citizens Act, 2007, provides senior citizens the right to live a dignified life by ensuring maintenance, healthcare, and legal remedies. However, after a few years of its enactment, the need to make amendments was felt. The amendment proposal 2019 was introduced in the parliament in the coming years, but before these were passed, the Lok Sabha dissolved. The discussion around the amendment in the Act came to the fore again when parliamentarian Dr Dharmasthala Veerendra Heggade asked about the proposal for amendment and financial and food security, health care and other needs of the elderly, and the government’s plan to address these issues in the Winter Session of the Lok Sabha on December 3, 2025.

Is The Senior Citizens Act Amendment Under Consideration?

In response to this, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), B L Verma, provided a written reply. It read “The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11.12.2019. The Bill lapsed after dissolution of Lok Sabha.”

“The National Policy on Older Persons, 1999, envisages state support to ensure financial and food security, healthcare, shelter, protection and other needs of older persons to improve the quality of their lives,” he added and acknowledged, “With the passage of time there is a need to bring in a new policy.”  

Note that Indian demography is transitioning, and the elderly population is rising fast. It is expected that by 2036, in every seven Indians, there will be one elderly (60 years and above) person. Per the projections, the elderly population in India would double from 100 million in 2011 to 230 million by 2036. This changing demography requires a change in policies to cater to the rising number of older adults’ needs.

The proposed amendments in 2019 included, removal of the capping of monthly maintenance of Rs 10,000, early disposal of applications of seniors aged above 80 years, appointment of nodal police officers in every police station, registration of senior citizens care homes, homecare service agencies, etc., among other changes.

However, the reply in the parliament shows that the need is still felt, but the amendment is still awaited.

Measures To Sensitise People Towards Senior Citizens

On the question of advocacy campaign to sensitise people to the concerns of the elderly, the reply read, “To create awareness, information is made available on the website of the Ministry, eAnudaan portal, social media and dissemination through the state Governments. Further, Regional Resource Training Centres (RRTCs) conduct workshops and capacity building programs to generate awareness about various measures being taken by the MoSJE for welfare of senior citizens. MoSJE celebrates the International Day of Older Persons on 1st October every year to generate awareness across the country about the importance and needs of the senior citizens.”

The government also encourages startups and initiatives for the elderly. Under the Atal Vayo Abhyudhaya Yojana, the government runs the initiative Senior Care Ageing Growth Engine (SAGE) to support entrepreneurs who develop innovative products and services for seniors. To date, nine startups have been sanctioned under the scheme, which are related to health, finance, housing, and technology for seniors.