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To provide dedicated health care facilities to the senior citizens (>60 years of age) at various levels of primary, secondary and tertiary health care and to address various health related problems of elderly people, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had launched the “National Programme for the Health Care of Elderly” (NPHCE) during 2010-11.
Objectives:
- To provide accessible, affordable, and high-quality long-term, comprehensive and dedicated care services to an Ageing population;
- Creating a new “architecture” for Ageing; to build a framework to create an enabling environment for “a Society for all Ages”;
- To promote the concept of Active and Healthy Ageing;
- Convergence with National Rural Health Mission, AYUSH and other line departments like Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
NPHCE has a National Health Mission (NHM) Component consisting of Primary & Secondary care service delivery through District Hospitals (DH), Community Health Centres (CHC), Primary Health Centres (PHC), Sub-Centre/Health & Wellness Centres. It has also a Tertiary Component providing services through Regional Geriatric Centres (RGCs) located at 19 Medical colleges in 18 states of India and two National Centres of Aging (NCAs) one in AIIMS, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi and another in Madras Medical College, Chennai.
Further, a Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) project, a nationally representative survey of older persons in India, was undertaken through International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai during 2017-18.
In order to further strengthen and broaden the scope of National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly and also help in establishing a range of preventive and health care programmes for older population, a nationally representative survey of older persons in India LASI (Longitudinal aging survey of India) was conducted (2017-18) under NPHCE.
The survey covered all 30 states and 6 Union Territories of India with a panel sample size of 72,250 older adults aged 45 years including 31464 people above 60 years of age and above and their spouses regardless of age. The report of LASI Wave-I along with State wise factsheets and India factsheet was released by Hon’ble Union Health Minister on 6th January 2021. Further, there is a provision of Research on specific elderly diseases at Department of Geriatrics in the Regional Geriatrics Centre & National Centre for Ageing.
The National Programme for Palliative Care (NPPC), National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCBVI), National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), National Oral Health Programme (NOHP), National Programme for Prevention & Control of Deafness (NPPCD) and National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) are the other programmes which also cater to health needs of Elderly.
The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharti Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 5th April, 22.
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