Maintenance for Senior Citizens: An Incentive towards Happiness Index
Maintenance for Senior Citizens: An Incentive towards Happiness Index
- C M Vaishnavi, Student of Parul Institute of Law, Parul University, Vadodara
Any person is conferred to be a Senior Citizen who generally attains 60 years of age and above and is therefore retired from the employment. They are no longer provided remuneration except in cases where the person was a government employee prior to his retirement. There comes no one except their own heirs to support them for their survival. There are very few who receive pension and there are many not even with the basic amenities in order to lead a peaceful life. It is the parent who takes care of his children from birth till their education and satisfying all their needs but when it comes for taking care of the parents only a few come forward and this is the reason why there are many old age homes. A country cannot prosper only with the proper allocation of money and its utilization of resources but it is also rated on the basis of Happiness Index of the country. In the year 2019, India was ranked at 140th position out of 156 countries for the Happiness Index. The Happy Planet Index is based on the human well-being and economic development. Apart from unemployment and poverty, one of the neglected issues in the society is the maintenance of Senior citizens. Even if everything is completely fulfilled, there is still a lacuna in some area.
The government came up with a statute namely “The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007” in order to help the parents and Senior citizens who are deficient of money and unable to fulfill their needs. The term “Maintenance” is not only confined to money but it also includes the security of the parents and taking care of their food, clothing, shelter, medical attendance and treatment. This includes maintenance to parents irrespective of whether they are biological, adoptive or step-father or step-mother. The Section 4 of this Act states that- “A senior citizen including a parent who is unable to maintain himself from his own earning or out of the property owned by him, he can seek maintenance from his children who is not a minor and in case of a childless Senior citizen, the responsibility extends to the relatives of the senior citizen who are capable enough to maintain them or the one who would inherit their property later.” Furthermore, In order to overcome the situation, the Government came up with new policies namely- Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS), Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), Varishta Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY), Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY) and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. In Senior Citizen Welfare Organisation & another V/s. State of Uttarakhand & Anr.,(2018) it was held that every senior citizen has a right to live with dignity. It is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. In this case, the petitioner alleged that as per Section 19 of the Act- “Old age home is to be established in each district of the State to accommodate the senior citizens” and the High Court of Uttarakhand issued necessary directions for the establishment of the same. In Jurisprudence we talk about the legal status of a dead person that he has the right to be properly cremated and he has the right to his reputation and property. In a similar way, the senior citizens do possess these rights and they have the right to be treated with respect till they live. It connotes that their right is not extinguished as soon as they seek maintenance but it continues till they lead a peaceful life without being defamed. In Pramod Ranjankar & Anr. V/s. Arunashankar & Ors. (2018) the two senior citizens were tortured and physically assaulted by their son and daughter-in-law by not providing them with proper food and medicine and also restricted them to live in a particular area of their house. Based on the first impression, the case was filed under Section 24 of the said act which states that- “Anyone who is having the responsibility of taking care of the senior citizens and in any place with the intention of completely abandoning such senior citizen shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term which may extend to 3 months or with a fine which may extend to five thousand rupees or both. Later, it came up with a concept that every senior citizen has a right over their immovable property and the expulsion of such abusive children. In early times, there used to be a joint family combining all the relations in a single house but in today’s scenario in order to upgrade themselves people started moving to the cities and adopted modern culture. With the change in Industrial revolution, everyone started running behind money and lesser valuing the relationships and this is one of the reasons for the shortfall of happiness in the society. There are many schemes implemented by the government to provide maintenance to the senior citizens but it is not reached completely as it is to them because of the non-performance of the allotted duties by the enforcement authorities who are engaged in the work of distributing the maintenance money. Apart from the government, the Senior citizens play an important role in amending the behaviour of an individual by their moral preachings and principles but nowadays they are not even allowed to take care of their grand children. We are in the phase of More the advancement, more the backwards instead we should be following More the advancement including happiness, more the forwardness. There is still lack of awareness in the society about the maintenance of senior citizens, that is the reason why there are many brutal things committed against them. The senior citizens even belonging to the upper middle class families and rich families too face a lot of problems in this regard and they are the victims most of the times. The change cannot be brought within a second, the change starts from us on the basic understanding of a particular thing. According to Section 6 of this Act, if the children or the relative of the senior citizens fail to provide maintenance then, necessary actions can be taken against them irrespective of where so ever he resides or lastly resided. Many of the senior citizens fear of entering the courts to seek maintenance because of the cumbersome process carried by it and most of the times they are suppressed by their children and this too can be a reason why they are unable to seek maintenance. By this act, it is not necessary for them to approach the court, they can reach to the nearest maintenance tribunal to seek the maintenance. The maximum maintenance amount that can be provided to them is Rs.10, 000/- per month and the tribunal has the power to alter, modify and even cancel the order in certain circumstances. The maintenance tribunal has also the power to levy interest on the maintenance amount starting from 5% to 18%. Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that any parent or the senior citizen can claim maintenance from their children irrespective of whether they are biological or adopted. Recently, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha which provides rights to the children and grand children to appeal in the next highest authority of the Maintenance tribunal. The problem behind the disappearance of happiness is due to the lack of mutual understanding and communication. If this gap is completely covered, not only senior citizens but also all the families in the society can lead a happy & peaceful life which will again help in increasing the prosperity of the country and can have a push up in the happiness index. “Let live and let others live happily”.
