Nearly a year after launch, Tamil Nadu's elderly welfare policy remains a ‘secret’ even now

CHENNAI: As the number of senior citizens living in isolated conditions across the state, especially in Chennai, is growing, the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department has framed the ‘Tamil Nadu State Policy on Senior Citizens - 2023’ factoring concerns of their safety, possible mental health crises and neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The government released the policy in October last year with various focus areas for senior citizens in Tamil Nadu.

Observing that in 2030, the number of senior citizens will reach 1.5 crore in TN, the government planned to frame policy for senior citizens with their welfare as the motive. A drafting committee of 11 members was inducted to pen the policy.

As per a Social Welfare Department higher official, the policy was released for its implementation in October.

The committee submitted its draft around July last year. However, the policy was released in October 2023 after modifying the draft per suggestions and feedback from all the line departments and the public. Sadly, the release of the policy largely remained a secret among the public, media, stakeholders and members of the drafting committee themselves.

“We were unaware that the policy was released and likely that most stakeholders, including senior citizens themselves, were unaware of it being made public. For the effective use of the policy, the department should inform the beneficiaries of such a policy,” said a drafting committee member.

As per the document, the focus areas for the TN State Policy on Senior Citizens – 2023 are health and nutrition, social security scheme, livelihood/income security, housing and transportation, safety and security, institutional care, awareness and education, research and documentation, disaster management and mitigation and establishment of structures to implement the policy.

Commenting on requesting the department to focus on an action plan, Raja Samuel, principal of Madras School of Social Work, said, “There are certain key factors that the department should pay heed to in the welfare of senior citizens. Recently, the cases of senior citizens living alone have surged, particularly in urban regions of bigger cities of TN.”

“When the elderly persons are living alone, there are instances of crime and theft reported. Hence, the government should consider factors to address this. Also, the condition of living alone triggers mental health issues, which also needs to be addressed,” he added.

Policy’s action plan to be released by Oct

For the ‘Tamil Nadu State Policy on Senior Citizens - 2023’ report released in October last year, the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department is set to release the ‘action plan’ for the policy in a couple of months. Speaking to DT Next, a higher official of the Social Welfare Department said, “After the policy was released in October, we have been working on releasing the action plan. So far, we have conducted two meetings, and the action plan will likely be released within a few months.” After the action plan is framed, the official said it will be sent to the government for approval. However, the drafting committee members claimed that the release of the policy was kept under wraps as media coverage of the policy was dull, and the members themselves were unaware of the release of the policy.