Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana: Rs 77.98 Crore for 755 Projects

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment runs Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (AVYAY) as the single umbrella scheme for the welfare of older Indians. A detailed backgrounder issued on 27 October 2026 set out the scheme's components, its latest spending and the digital tools that now sit under it.

Why the scheme exists

India is ageing quietly but quickly. The Census of 2011 counted 10.38 crore people aged 60 and above, of whom 5.11 crore were men and 5.27 crore women. That number is expected to touch 23 crore by 2036. Migration to cities, smaller households and weaker family support have pushed organised elder care up the policy agenda, and the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India finds that many older persons live with functional limitations.

Money and coverage

The scheme began in 2021 and absorbed the older National Action Plan for Senior Citizens, bringing several welfare programmes under one head. For the quarter that closed on 30 September 2026, in financial year 2026-27, the government released Rs 77.98 crore as grant-in-aid to 755 projects under the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens, which is the scheme's main delivery arm. That arm at present backs 764 senior citizen homes, 13 continuous care homes, 17 mobile medicare units and 3 physiotherapy clinics, run by voluntary bodies, panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies.

Components worth remembering

• Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana, a 2017 scheme later folded into AVYAY, has handed out 55,87,653 assistive devices to more than 10.45 lakh older people through ALIMCO centres.
• The State Action Plan for Senior Citizens pays for geriatric caregiver training and cataract surgery drives; a state may use up to 20 per cent of its allocation on its own ideas.
• Every Regional Resource and Training Centre draws yearly support of Rs 19.58 lakh for training, research and project inspection.
• SAGE, the SeniorCare Ageing Growth Engine, supports elder-care start-ups with equity assistance of up to Rs 1 crore, mentoring and market links.

The digital layer

Elderline, the national helpline reached on 14567, opened in October 2021 and has taken over 8.66 lakh actionable calls. In May 2026 the government added the JEEVAN mobile application and the SHATAYU geriatric dashboard, which maps trained caregivers district by district and lists 30,151 of them, 6,817 men and 23,334 women. Grants are tracked on the E-anudaan portal, and institutions must run biometric attendance and publish live CCTV feeds.