Protection of Human Rights Of Senior Citizens in India A Legal Analysis

Abstract

newline Population Ageing, a global phenomenon has dawned on India and our God s own country. The population of the aged is increasing exponentially at a much higher rate than the rate of increase in total population due to various factors like rise in longevity and decline in fertility. This demographic transition has unleashed a plethora of socio-economic and legal issues mainly pertaining to the income and health needs of the aged. The drastic demographic shift was never anticipated by our Constitution framers and Lawmakers who lived during the age of joint families and for whom nuclear families was social taboo. newlineThe new era of the third age and the fourth age calls for a recalibration of the existing legal architecture and framework. Senior Citizens are humans and are inherently entitled to all human rights. However, their physical and mental vulnerability due to the inevitable, irreversible, biological phenomenon of ageing entitles them to certain special rights both positive and negative, the most important being the right to dignified living. newlineThe study seeks to examine the adequacy and efficacy of the existing legal framework and its mechanisms both statutory and non-statutory in protecting the rights and dignity of senior citizens or persons of and above 60 years of age. The study analyses the biological phenomenon of ageing and its impact on human rights. It analyses the various positive and negative rights of senior citizens. Itassesses the extent to which existing legislations, policies, schemes and programmes for the aged help satisfy the manifold rights and dignity of senior citizens.