INDIA: Parliament Debates Proposed Law To Protect Senior Citizens

NEW DELHI (IANS), December 5, 2007: The Lok Sabha today took up for consideration a bill aiming to protect senior citizens and making neglecting parents above 60 years punishable by a fine and imprisonment or both. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, was introduced in March this year and is expected to be passed by parliament Thursday. It proposes to make it obligatory on the people who inherit the property of their aged relatives to maintain them. The bill also aims to make provisions for setting up old-age homes to take care of indigent older persons. The legislation is aimed at helping India's 76 million elderly citizens, said Meira Kumar, minister for social justice and empowerment. According to her, India's population of senior citizens - above 60 - would reach 173 million by 2026. 'In our tradition we take pride in serving the elderly... but with the joint families withering, elderly are being abandoned. This bill is in response to the concerns expressed by many members over the fate of the elderly,' Kumar said in the Lok Sabha while moving the bill. Though the parents can claim maintenance under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the procedure is both time-consuming as well as expensive, the minister said. Explaining the salient points of the bill, Kumar said the legislation covers parents, whether or not above 60 and the senior citizens. The bill also places a legal obligation on children and relatives to maintain the senior citizen or parent in order to enable him or her to live a normal life. This obligation applies to all Indian citizens, including those living abroad. It aims to set up an appropriate mechanism for need-based maintenance to parents and senior citizens, better medical facilities and old-age homes in every district. The bill seeks to institutionalise a suitable mechanism for the protection of the life and property of older persons. 'There is penal punishment for the children who abandon their parents. If the elderly are not taken care of by their children or relatives after inheriting the property from them, there are provisions to revert it back to them,' Kumar said. 'The state governments should institutionalise mechanism for protecting the lives and properties of the elderly,' she said.