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The Hindu
6 days ago
- General
- The Hindu
Government to bring new national policy on senior citizens
A new national policy on senior citizens is in the draft stages with the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, government officials said, adding that some details of it were discussed on Monday (May 2, 2025) at a meeting of the National Council for Senior Citizens, chaired by Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar. The Social Justice Ministry said discussions focused on how the draft policy should 'reflect the demographic realities' of India as it heads into the future. A statement from the Ministry said population projections estimated that 20% of the country would be senior citizens by 2047. According to the 2011 Census, senior citizens accounted for 8.23% of the nation's population at the time. According to the government's projections, they will account for about 12.16% of the country's population in 2026. The government on Wednesday (May 4, 2025) said the forthcoming Census' reference period for a headcount would be March of 2027. A government official told The Hindu, 'The policy is in a draft stage now. Suggestions have already come in from relevant stakeholders and some of these suggestions were put forth at the meeting on Wednesday.' They added that one of the suggestions was to consider that India will have a higher proportion of senior citizens by 2047. This was the fourth meeting of the National Council for Senior Citizens, the government said in its statement. Digital inclusion At the meeting, the council also deliberated on 'digital inclusion' of senior citizens, the government said. It further discussed institutionalising NGOs and senior citizen associations in policy formulation, implementation, and feedback mechanisms. Deliberations also went into areas of trying to establish a grievance redress mechanism to address elder abuse and neglect; implementing minimum standards for 'old age homes' and senior care institutions; and 'promoting community engagement and intergenerational bonding'. The council also undertook a detailed review of the progress under the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY) and Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC), Senior Citizen Portal in terms of enhancing quality and post-distribution follow-up of assisted living devices, the statement added. The government said that under the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, more than five lakh senior citizens had been given 'free assisted living devices'. Through the IPSrC, the Ministry is currently supporting 708 NGOs that are operating 'continuous care homes, physiotherapy centres, old age homes, and mobile medicare units'. These schemes are covered under the Social Justice Ministry's umbrella programme known as 'National Action Plan for Welfare of Senior Citizens'. This National Action Plan was formulated and put out in April 2020. The National Policy on Older Persons was first announced by the Government of India in 1999. Following that a Commission headed by Mohini Giri had in 2011 put out a National Policy for Senior Citizens, which was in place till the National Action Plan of the Union government came out in April 2020.
The Hindu
02-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Centre calls for proposals to set up de-addiction centres in 291 ‘gap' districts
The Union government has invited proposals to set up District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs) in 291 'gap' districts identified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment across 30 States and Union Territories in the country as part of its National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction. 'Gap' districts have been identified as those that currently have no Centrally supported infrastructure to treat or rehabilitate people who are dealing with substance abuse or dependence, officials told The Hindu. The Social Justice Ministry is also preparing to launch a fresh round of a nationwide survey to establish the extent and pattern of substance use across India, which is expected to gather data at the district level. The government's national action plan provides for the Social Justice Ministry to support Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCAs), Community-based Peer Led Initiatives (CPLIs), Outreach and Drop-in Centres (ODICs), and DDACs. The Social Justice Ministry told Parliament this April that it is supporting 350 IRCAs, 74 ODICs, 46 CPLIs, and 124 DDACs. Apart from this, the Ministry is also supporting 142 addiction treatment facilities running from government hospitals. 'These [291] districts are ones where currently no IRCA, CPLI, or ODIC supported by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment are running. So, as a start, the government is calling for DDAC proposals for these gap districts, which will also serve the functions of these interventions,' a government official said. In addition to administrative and office space for the staff, each DDAC is supposed to house a treatment cum rehabilitation centre, an area for drop-in centre facilities, and an area for CPLI facilities. The DDACs can have the capacity to house 15 or 30 patients at a time, with specific norms of minimum requirements prescribed for them. According to the invitation issued by the government for the latest batch of 291 DDACs, the highest number of 'gap' districts have been identified in Chhattisgarh, where 31 of the State's 33 districts have figured in this list. Other states where a high number of 'gap' districts have been identified include Madhya Pradesh (23), Gujarat (22), Arunachal Pradesh (21), Bihar (25), Jharkhand (16), Uttar Pradesh (18), Punjab (16), and Assam (10). The invitation for expression of interest-cum-proposal floated by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for the latest batch of 291 DDACs issued last week asked eligible NGOs and start-ups with at least two years of experience in drug de-addiction treatment to apply by June 30. The government said these DDACs would 'conduct primary prevention activities through awareness programmes among the vulnerable and affected community', and 'engage in risk mitigation of substance use among children/adolescents/youth'. This will include preventing substance use, identifying peer educators in the communities, implementing early prevention education, identifying adolescents or children using substances and referring them to rehabilitation centres or treatment facilities, among other activities. The National Survey of Extent and Pattern of Substance Use conducted in 2017-18 estimated, through extrapolated data, that there were about 1.18 crore children and adolescents using various psychoactive substances, including alcohol, cannabis, opioids, sedatives, inhalants, cocaine, amphetamine-type substances, and hallucinogens. The same survey had estimated about seven crore adults in the country using these psychoactive substances.
Time of India
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Maharashtra's Ladki Bahin Scheme strains budgets and alliances
Maharashtra's flagship Ladki Bahin scheme, which helped bring the Mahayuti alliance back to power, is now causing significant fiscal strain and internal rifts. Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat has publicly criticised the Finance Ministry, led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, after ₹450 crore allocated to his department was redirected for the scheme's payouts. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Code of war: India and Pakistan take their battle to the (web)front Forex reserves show a pauperised Pakistan, a prospering India Pakistan conducts training launch of surface-to surface ballistic missile "I've learned that around ₹410 crore has been taken away from my department. I wasn't kept in the loop about this," Shirsat said. "If you don't value the social justice department or feel it's unnecessary, then just shut it down. There's a limit to my tolerance." Shirsat's ire is directed at the Finance Ministry, claiming that funds allocated to his ministry cannot legally be repurposed without his consent. Diversion of Funds The Finance Ministry has diverted ₹410 crore from Shirsat's Social Justice Ministry and ₹335 crore from the Tribal Welfare Ministry for the Ladki Bahin scheme. This follows a previous diversion of ₹7,000 crore in March. Shirsat believes the action is unlawful and insists that the funds are meant for social welfare projects and cannot be used elsewhere.
The Hindu
26-04-2025
- The Hindu
Two years in, SMILE scheme identifies fewer that 10,000 people engaged in begging; 970 rehabilitated
Two years after the Union Social Justice Ministry started identifying, surveying, and profiling people engaged in begging under the SMILE scheme, the programme has so far identified 9,958 such individuals across 81 major cities and towns where it is being implemented. In comparison, the 2011 Census had recorded 3.72 lakh beggars across the country. As per records available with the Ministry, which runs the Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) scheme, of the 9,958 persons identified, 970 have been rehabilitated. Of those rehabilitated, 352 were children as of December 2024. The SMILE scheme was launched in 2022. One of its components was the sub-scheme to identify, profile, and rehabilitate individuals engaged in the act of begging with their consent. The other component of the scheme is for the empowerment of transgender persons. According to the guidelines for the sub-scheme to rid India of 'beggary', the idea was to 'make identified urban spaces, mainly religious cities, tourist places, and historical cities free from beggary'. The scheme was started across 30 cities in Phase 1, which included cities like Ayodhya, Dharamsala, Amritsar, Gir Somnath, Giridih, New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Gaya, Lucknow, Madurai, Kochi, Jammu, Srinagar, and Jaisalmer. In Phase 2, which began in the second year of its implementation, 50 more cities were added to this list. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census of 2011, which the Social Justice Ministry continues to refer to in their 2024 Handbook on Social Welfare Statistics, estimated that over 6.62 lakh households in rural India rely on begging, or charity or alms. According to the scheme guidelines, the target of the scheme was to rehabilitate at least 8,000 people in the three years between FY 2023-24 and FY 2025-26. The strategy for this involved looping in local government agencies down to the level of the urban local bodies and municipal corporations. It would entail identifying and surveying the people engaged in the act, outreach to them, their rehabilitation, and then their comprehensive resettlement. The handbook for conducting the identification, profiling, and surveying exercise, says that local surveyors are expected to identify and survey about 25 individuals engaged in begging. The handbook asks the survey team to first photograph or video the person engaged in the act, and then 'approach the person in a friendly manner' to start collecting more information. The latest guidelines for the sub-scheme said that an allocation of ₹100 crore had been made for it, to be spent over three years – from 2023-24 to 2025-26. According to the Social Justice Ministry's Annual Report for 2024-25, as of December 31, 2024, the government had spent ₹14.71 crore on this scheme.
