The North News
Chandigarh, January 1
The Punjab government has announced a state-wide campaign aimed at improving the dignity, safety and wellbeing of senior citizens, with large-scale health, legal and awareness services to be rolled out from mid-January. Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Dr. Baljit Kaur said the campaign, titled Sade Buzurg Sada Maan (Our Elders, Our Pride), will begin on January 16 from Mohali. The initiative is being implemented under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, the minister said the programme would be conducted through district-level camps across the state, offering free medical check-ups, cataract surgery screening, geriatric and ENT care, yoga sessions, legal awareness and other support services for older people. She said the government would spend nearly ₹24 crore on welfare, healthcare, old age homes, day care centres and awareness programmes for senior citizens. A separate State Action Plan worth ₹786.83 lakh has been approved for 2025–26, covering non-communicable disease and dementia screening, training of geriatric caregivers and state-level media campaigns.
She said the campaign, first launched in 2023, had already benefited more than 20,000 senior citizens through services such as eye and ENT check-ups, distribution of spectacles, pension facilitation, senior citizen cards and Ayushman cards.
The minister added that a toll-free helpline number, 14567, is operational to address grievances of senior citizens. She also highlighted the implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, under which thousands of cases have been resolved through maintenance and appellate tribunals.
As part of the initiative, the government will provide a grant of ₹6.82 crore to old age homes in 14 districts and financial assistance to day care centres in Barnala and Mansa. A new government-run old age home with 72 beds in Mansa district, built at a cost of ₹9.12 crore, is set to be inaugurated on 10 January.
Calling senior citizens the “heritage of society”, she further said the Mann government was committed to their holistic protection and urged elderly residents and their families to participate actively in the upcoming camps.
