Senior Citizens

The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act was enacted in December 2007, making maintenance of parents and senior citizens by children or relatives obligatory and justiciable through tribunals. The Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, part of the National Social Assistance Programme, pays a central pension to elderly people in families below the poverty line. The Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, announced in the Budget Speech 2015-16, was launched on 1 April 2017 to give free aids to senior citizens with age-related disabilities. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment now runs its elderly schemes under the umbrella Atal Vayo Abhyudaya Yojana (AVYAY).

On 29 October 2024 Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY was extended to every citizen aged 70 and above, irrespective of income, through the Ayushman Vay Vandana card. Enrolment passed 10 lakh within three weeks and 25 lakh by 9 December 2024. By 31 December 2025, more than 96.73 lakh cards had been created and 10.33 lakh hospital admissions worth ₹2,154.37 crore authorised; by 28 February 2026 the count of cards reached 1.14 crore.

The Vay Vandana card gives ₹5 lakh a year of cashless hospital cover under AB PM-JAY to anyone aged 70 or above, with no income test. Under IGNOAPS, the Centre pays ₹200 a month to BPL pensioners aged 60–79 and ₹500 from age 80, and States add top-ups from their own funds. Under IPOP, grants go to NGOs running old age homes for indigent senior citizens, while Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana supplies walking sticks, hearing aids, wheelchairs, dentures and spectacles free of cost. The Senior Citizens Savings Scheme deposit limit was raised from ₹15 lakh to ₹30 lakh in the Budget 2023-24.

India is ageing: MoSPI's Elderly in India 2021, using the Technical Group's population projections, puts the share of people aged 60 and above at 10.1% in 2021, about 138 million people, rising to 13.1% in 2031. Vay Vandana cards so far cover 1.14 crore of the 6 crore eligible senior citizens. A Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which widens the definitions of children and parents, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11 December 2019, as recorded by MoSPI in 2021.

1.14 crore Ayushman Vay Vandana cards (28 February 2026). ₹5 lakh a year of cover for all aged 70+. 10.33 lakh admissions worth ₹2,154.37 crore (31 December 2025). 2.21 crore+ IGNOAPS beneficiaries (February 2026); 3.09 crore under NSAP (November 2025). ₹200 / ₹500 central pension a month. 1,54,174 Vayoshri beneficiaries (2024-25). ₹30 lakh SCSS deposit limit (Budget 2023-24). 10.1% of the population aged 60+ in 2021. Sources: PIB releases 2241085, 2222493, 2203007, 2082288, 2073908, 2226202 and NSAP backgrounder of 7 November 2025; Budget Speech 2023-24; MoSPI, Elderly in India 2021.