The Delhi High Court has asked the chief secretary to “decide on the representation for directions” to conduct a door-to-door survey of senior citizens living in the capital. The exercise aims to determine the number of older people who are financially weak, homeless, and do not have family support and build old-age homes for them in every district, PTI reported.

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The order comes during the hearing of Salek Chand Jain’s petition seeking the court’s direction to Delhi Police to maintain a separate record of offenses committed against senior citizens.

While disposing of the petition, the bench of acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P.S. Arora said, “This court directs the present writ petition to be treated as a representation to the chief secretary, Delhi government, who, in turn, is directed to decide the same in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within twelve weeks.”

The government provides old-age homes for destitute elderly who cannot afford to live on their own. In a written reply to Lok Sabha on December 12, 2023, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhoumik, said there were a total of 603 old-age homes in the country, up from over 551 in 2021. The ministry’s data shows the number has increased in some states but decreased in other places. In Delhi, the number remained at three over these years.

In the case, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that two of the three old-age homes in Delhi include a government-run and an aided home. The Delhi government funds the Lampur Home, while the Bindapur Home is run on a public-private-partnership (PPP) model. The third old-age home is run by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).

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The old-age home initiative is a part of the central government’s Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana(AVYAY), where the government provides aid to the non-government organisations (NGOs) under the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC)to run and maintain these homes. Besides food and shelter, these homes provide healthcare and entertainment facilities.

However, over the last few years, grants under the IPSrC have reduced from Rs 12,258.27 lakh in 2020-21 to Rs 7,231.38 lakh in 2022-23.

Besides NGOs, corporates can also set up old age homes or day-care homes. Under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) provision of Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, and Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014, they can set up old age and senior care homes.