Summary of this article
· Senior Citizens Welfare Portal launched on May 2, 2025
· Portal provides consolidated access to government services for seniors
· Offers various schemes including National Helpline and Ayushman card
Indian demography is getting older, and by 2050, the population of people aged 60 and above is estimated to become 20 per cent of the total population. To put it in perspective, the senior citizens population was around 10 per cent as per the 2011 population census. The government runs different programmes for senior citizens to address their various needs. The newest addition to the offerings is the Senior Citizen Welfare Portal (SCWP). On May 2, 2025, President Draupadi Murmu launched the portal at the event “Ageing with Dignity - Initiatives for the Welfare of Senior Citizens" held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Ageing with Dignity is an initiative of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) focused on senior citizens in society. The aim is to spread awareness and create a society in which seniors can live with dignity without depending on others, and where intergenerational bonding is promoted.
The SCWP portal is a part of the objective. As B L Verma, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, said in the Lok Sabha on August 12, 2025, “The Senior Citizen Welfare Portal (SCWP) has been developed as an integrated digital platform to facilitate streamlined access to information, schemes, and services available for senior citizens across the country.”
What Services Does The Senior Citizen Welfare Portal Offer?
This is an integrated portal to offer senior citizens access to different government schemes and services from a single platform. That’s true that amid a plethora of information—fake and genuine—it is hard for older adults to navigate various websites to avail of the services or to simply get the information.
SCWP addresses this issue by providing information and access to the various government schemes on a single window. These schemes include the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC), Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, National Helpline for Senior Citizens, Seniorcare Ageing Growth Engine (SAGE), Senior Citizen Opportunities for Productive Engagement (SCOPE), Advocacy and Training, and many other schemes running in different states.
According to Verma’s reply, “The Portal also provides information on the various schemes of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for senior citizens. The list of old age homes(state-wise/ district-wise), Regional Resource Training Centres, Mobile Medicare Units, Physiotherapy Clinics supported by the Ministry and the list of pensioners' associations(State-Wise) are available on the portal. The portal serves as a platform for providing job opportunities to the senior citizens through integration with the National Career Service Portal, Ministry of Labour and Employment.”
Besides this, one can access services related to Ayushman card, life certificate, eSanjeevani medical advice, pensioner’s portal, and state schemes.
However, the platform is new and does not seem to have integrated all the schemes. While the National Government Services Portal shows ministry-wise and state-wise services, SCWP shows only one State in the State’s scheme, and that link simply redirects to the concerned service website of that State.
Needless to say, as a comprehensive website for senior citizens, its user interface should be more user-friendly and navigation simpler, or it may not serve its purpose.
