Organizations/ remedies in India to protect senior citizens

NGOs working for senior citizens in India

There are a few places and organizations working in India for protection of senior citizens who are facing abuse and threats. These fill a vital need and protection against abuse of senior citizens, so should be widely publicized.

1. Senior Citizens Protection Act, also called the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, can be invoked by senior citizens to ask for maintenance in case they are not being taken care of by their family members, as well as threats to their life and well-being. However, the process of seeking redressal under this act can sometimes be complicated, senior citizens have to approach the District Magistrate (DM) or ADM of the city or town. Senior citizen tribunals (for appeals related to Senior Citizens Act 2007) are available in some big cities, and are under the additional district magistrate.

2. Senior Citizen Cell and Helplines: Senior citizens can call these helpline numbers in case of abuse, and they connect to a specialized police cell. An example is the 1091/1291 of Delhi Police Senior Citizen Helpline and 1090 Elders helpline of Bangalore police (1090 may also work in other cities). However, such helplines and senior citizen cells are not available in all cities, only in the big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc. In the absence of these, the senior citizens have to approach the regular police stations with their complaints.

3. NHRC or National Human Rights Commission India: One can file an online complaint at the NHRC website in case of abuse. Their platform is mostly based online, so senior citizens needs to be familiar with technology to take advantage of it.

4. NCW or National Commission for Women: can be used by senior citizen women

5. Senior Citizen NGOs: There are a few NGOs focused on helping senior citizens, both nationally in India and in different cities, such as HelpAge India, Dignity Foundation, Agewell Foundation, Harmony, Dada Dadi organization and so on. Their websites are as follows:

6. Helpage India https://www.helpageindia.org/

7. Dignity foundation https://dignityfoundation.com/

8. Agewell Foundation https://agewellfoundation.com/

9. Harmony https://www.harmonyindia.org/

10. Dada Dadi http://dadadadi.org/

11. Silver Talkies https://silvertalkies.com/

#Seniorcitizenabuse #seniorcitizenprotectionact