The Union government wants its Ministries and departments and private agencies to adopt 60 as the age at the which a person is classified a senior citizen. This is to address anomalies in extending benefits to the elderly. The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry is planning to bring in an amendment to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, to implement this change.
The Act defines senior citizens as any person who is a citizen of India and has attained the age of “60 years and above”.
The phrase ‘... and above’ is being manipulated by several agencies to deny benefits under senior-citizen clauses by adopting different age limits, a government official said.
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“Several departments have adopted different age criteria for extending the benefits ,” the official said.