Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana: A central Government Scheme to provide Assistive Living Devices to Senior Citizens.

Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana is a central government scheme for senior citizens living below the poverty line. Through this scheme the central government offer free living assistive devices to senior citizens belong to BPL families to make their lives easy.

Objective of Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana:

• The main objective of the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana is to enable older people from economically backward society live an active life and create an aged-friendly society. 
• The scheme is aimed at providing them life assisting devices so that they can maintain near normalcy in morbidity. Old age disabilities like low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth and locomotor disability would be addressed through the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana.
• The central government has set a target of distributing free assistive devices to at least 2000 beneficiaries in each camp. For distributing the devices, the government would organize camps in two districts of each state for the whole year.

List of Devices under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana: 

• Hearing aids
• Wheelchair
• Walkers
• Crutches
• Tripods
• Spectacles
• Dentures
•  ETC

Eligibility Criteria for Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana:

• The age of beneficiary should be at least 60 years
• The person should be certified as living below the poverty line by a competent authority

Salient features of the Scheme are as under:

• Free of cost distribution of the devices, commensurate with the extent of disability/infirmity that is manifested among the eligible senior citizens.
• In case of multiple disabilities/infirmities manifested in the same person, the assistive devices will be given in respect of each disability/impairment. 
• The devices will help the Senior Citizens to overcome their age related physical impairment and to lead a dignified and productive life with minimal dependence on care givers or other members of the family. 
• The Scheme will be implemented through the sole implementing agency, ‘Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO)’, (a PSU under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment). 
• ALIMCO will undertake one year free maintenance of the aids & assisted living devices. 
• Beneficiaries in each district will be identified by the State Governments/UT Administrations through a Committee chaired by the Deputy Commissioner/District Collector. 
• As far as possible, 30% of the beneficiaries in each district shall be women. 
• The State Government/UT Administration/District Level Committee can also utilize the data of BPL beneficiaries receiving Old Age Pension under the NSAP or any other Scheme of the State/UT for identification of senior citizens belonging to BPL category.
  The devices will be distributed in Camp mode.The expected financial outlay over the next three years (i.e. upto 2019-20) is Rs. 483.6 Crores.

As per the SECC-2011 data, there are about 10.38 crore senior citizens in the country out of which 5.2% (About 54 Lakh) of them suffer from some sort of old age-related disability. The number of senior citizens is expected to reach 173 million (17.3 Crore) by the year 2026.

The Government has decided through Scheme to provide Physical aids and Assisted Living Devices for such senior citizens suffering from age related disabilities/ infirmities, who belong to BPL category.