National Policy on Older Persons

• HelpAge India lobbied for 15 years for the Indian government to frame a policy for the care of the elderly in the country. In 1999, the central government announced the National Policy for Older Persons. The policy is aimed at strengthening primary health care, encouraging people to provide for their old age, encouraging family members to be responsible for the elders in the family, providing training and orientation to medical and paramedical workers in the care of the elderly, promoting a concept of healthy aging, providing separate counters and reservation of beds in hospitals for the elderly and providing subsidized food for the elderly who are destitute.
  
  

Fighting Isolation

• HelpAge India conducted a survey to study loneliness in elderly people. Approximately 11 percent or more of India's elderly population live alone. The organization estimates that this figure is set to rise to 25 percent for people in their 60s and to 40 percent for people over the age of 75. Isolation is one of the more serious problems faced by old people who believe that no one cares whether they exist; they feel trapped inside their own homes and have little or no socialization with other people. The organization mounted a large campaign to highlight the problem, and has begun organizing events for elderly people.
  
  

Senior Citizens Associations (SCAs)

• Senior Citizens Associations (SCAs) are community groups made up of senior citizens who work to improve living conditions of older people in the community. There is enormous potential in senior citizens, and HelpAge India has begun tapping into these resources to benefit society. Engaging senior citizens in various activities that help other people gives them a sense of self-worth. HelpAge organizes seminars with the SCAs across the country to create awareness about the National Policy on Older Persons, Senior Citizens Act and Maintenance and Welfare of the Parents. This has propelled state governments to implement policies that benefit the elderly.
  
  

Self-Help Groups

• HelpAge India targets the remote villages of India where people have never heard of women's rights. The organization helps to establish self-help groups and provides counseling and training to help them understand the benefits from being organized in a group. Through unity and determination, the organization demonstrates to women that they have rights. They don't have to walk ten kilometers every day to get potable water, for example. By submitting an application signed by every member of the village, the water tankers can begin arriving within two days.