New Delhi: India's elderly population is projected to reach 23 crore by 2036, the government has said in an official factsheet on its flagship senior-citizens scheme, the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY), released by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on Tuesday. The factsheet sets out the scheme's current reach as the country prepares for a sharp rise in the number of older people needing care, housing and health support.
Source: IANS
The government has released Rs 77.98 crore — yaani, just under Rs 78 crore — as grant-in-aid to 755 projects under the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC), the main implementation arm of AVYAY, for the quarter ending September 30, 2026, in the financial year 2026-27. The grants go to NGOs, Panchayati Raj Institutions and local bodies that run and maintain old age homes, continuous care homes, mobile medical units, physiotherapy clinics and training centres.
At present, 764 senior citizen homes, 13 continuous care homes, 17 mobile medicare units and 3 physiotherapy clinics are being supported under IPSrC, the factsheet states. The scheme's current expansion focus is primarily on establishing and maintaining senior citizen homes, to ensure shelter for indigent seniors.
Devices, a National Helpline and Trained Caregivers
Under the standalone Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, eligible senior citizens with age-related disability or infirmity are given assistive living devices. The scheme has so far benefited over 10.45 lakh senior citizens, with 55,87,653 assistive devices distributed through camps and walk-in centres of ALIMCO, the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India. The national Elderline helpline for senior citizens, launched in October 2021, has received over 8.66 lakh actionable calls, the factsheet says.
Source: Nation Press
Through the State Action Plan for Senior Citizens (SAPSrC), states and Union Territories get grants to build a pool of trained geriatric caregivers, run special cataract surgery drives and take up state-specific welfare work; states can use up to 20 per cent of their allocation for their own programmes. Regional Resource and Training Centres, which support outreach and training, receive annual financial support of Rs 19.58 lakh each.
The factsheet also lists the scheme's newer digital tools. The JEEVAN mobile application and the SHATAYU geriatric dashboard, both launched in May 2026, help senior citizens and their families find trained caregivers by district and state; the dashboard currently lists 30,151 caregivers — 6,817 men and 23,334 women. Under the Seniorcare Ageing Growth Engine (SAGE), selected start-ups working on elderly-care solutions can receive financial assistance of up to Rs 1 crore through equity participation, along with mentoring and market linkages.
For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian families settled abroad whose parents and grandparents live in India, the numbers underline both the scale of support available — homes, devices, a helpline and trained caregivers — and the size of the challenge ahead, as the elderly population heads towards 23 crore over the next decade. (Sources: IANS; official AVYAY factsheet of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, via Nation Press)