Centre calls for proposals to set up regional centres for senior citizen care

The Hindu

5 days ago

The Union government has issued a notification calling for fresh proposals to set up new Regional Resource and Training Centres (RRTCs) in 27 States and Union Territories (UTs) to act as key nodal agencies for all senior citizens care related activities, a notice made public by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said.
Setting up of RRTCs is part of the Union government's overarching programme to supervise and run schemes for senior citizens across the country under the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens, which is part of the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY).
Under the programme guidelines, RRTCs will be responsible for running training and awareness programmes in the States assigned to them, coordinating with the State administrations, the Union Ministry, and the National Institute of Social Defence (NISD). They will also be responsible for monitoring all senior citizen care activities in their jurisdiction and assist the State administrations in preparing their respective State Action Plans for senior citizens.
This comes even as the Union government is in the final stages of preparing a new national policy on senior citizens, with a special focus on the fact that India's population is ageing and that the government's projections showed that 20% of the country's population would be senior citizens by 2047 – up from about 8% as of 2011.
Currently, the Union government, through the Social Justice Ministry's NISD is supporting 11 RRTCs across the country that are meant to serve senior citizens across almost 30 States/UTs. Given that many of the NGOs running these centres have been assigned as many as six to seven States each, some of them have said that it is challenging to effectively manage the jurisdiction of so many States.
Dr. Abha Choudhary, who runs Anugraha, an NGO headquartered in Delhi, told The Hindu, 'We are supposed to be running senior citizen care activities for the entire northern region. That is six States/UTs. We have been supporting the programmes and helping each administration, but this is a very large jurisdiction to handle.'
The NISD's website showed that Anugraha has been allotted Delhi, Haryana, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Choudhary said, 'Apart from the fact that it is such a big geographical area, some States such as UP are too large and may require two RRTCs.'
Some larger NGOs currently part of the RRTC programme such as HelpAge India have, however, said that they have adequate resources to run RRTCs in multiple States and UTs.
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has issued the notification calling for proposals to set up RRTCs. These centres are mandated to provide technical expertise to State governments in preparing State-level action plans for senior citizens.