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India’s Senior Citizens’ Policy and an Examination of the Life of
Senior Citizens in North Delhi |
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Hitoshi Ota |
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This paper investigates the ageing situation in India and the development of Government
initiatives for the welfare of senior citizens. It also presents the initial results of a survey
that the author conducted in 2011 in North Delhi. The main features related to ageing in
India are ‘feminization’, ‘rurality’, and ‘poverty’. Although income security schemes for elderly
people were introduced at both the national and state levels in the 1950s and 1960s,
and the fi rst national policy for senior citizens was announced in 1999, it was not until the
middle of the fi rst decade of the 2000s that the Government took further accentuating
steps pertaining to welfare for senior citizens. The National Pension Scheme (NPS) and the
Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) are among their major initiatives.
The survey in North Delhi reveals the differences between the male and female senior
citizens, and the vulnerability of the latter, in particular. The social security coverage in
terms of pensions and health insurance was found to be quite limited for the
respondents. |
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