Towards a policy for aging in India

India has been engaged in developing the National Policy for elderly for the last two decades. The efforts to establish a policy began building on traditional values, a small number of pre-independence enactments. Lawgivers of India spoke of the rights of the elderly and the responsibility of the state towards them almost 2000 years ago. Additional factors such as culture, social norms, and influence of international organizations, particularly the Vienna Plan of Action, have been responsible for shaping the Policy. The Plan of Action agreed upon at the end of the Vienna meeting could not come into being due to several reasons such as the size of the country and its federal structure. This article takes an overview of the efforts made by the federal government and the NGOs to create a National Policy. The article describes the process by which the National Policy came into being and provides an overview and critique of the present Policy. The author makes a summary of the major areas of action suggested by the Policy, the strategies designed, and the implementation roles of different Ministries. The author describes the steps taken since 1999 and provides the concluding remarks.