Our Reporter
Dimapur, Aug. 22(EMN): Two senior citizen homes in Nagaland state is under Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC) and receiving grant-in-aid, according to the update from Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
The ministry stated that at present, grant-in-aid is being provided to implementing agencies for running and maintenance of 502 senior citizen homes across the country. Among the North-eastern states, 30 senior citizen homes from Manipur, 35 from Assam, two each from Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram, and one from Arunachal Pradesh are provided grant in aid under IPSrC.
According to the ministry, there is no scheme from the ministry for construction of old age homes. However, under the ‘Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY)’, grant in aid is provided to NGOs and voluntary organisations for running and maintenance of senior citizen homes (old age homes), continuous care homes, and others.
It stated that all these Homes are mandated to maintain the standard norms prescribed in the scheme, and to verify compliance of these institutions to the given standards, a Project Monitoring Unit has been constituted. Wherever any institution is found to be violating these standards the grant is cancelled after giving opportunity for them to explain the same, it said.
The ministry stated that it is committed to covering all districts of the country with at least one senior citizen home under IPSrC.
Some of the standard norms under the scheme for running old age homes include adequate land, living space, facilities (electricity, kitchen, recreational facilities, first aid), and operational standards (nutrition, medicare, security, clothing, hygiene and sanitation).
