The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is implementing the scheme of ‘Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY)’ with an objective to provide senior citizens, belonging to BPL category and suffering from age related disabilities/ infirmities, with such physical aids and assisted living devices which can restore near normalcy in their bodily functions. Under the Scheme, aids & assisted living devices viz. walking sticks, elbow crutches, walkers/ crutches, tripods/ quadpods, hearing aids, wheelchairs, artificial dentures and spectacles are distributed free of cost to the eligible senior citizens beneficiaries. The Scheme is entirely funded from the Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund (SCWF), established vide Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund Rules, 2016 notified on 18.03.2016. So far, an amount of Rs. 124.01 Crore has been allocated from SCWF for Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana.
The Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana was launched at Nellore (A.P.) on 1st April, 2017. At present, a total of 326 districts from all State/UTs Administration have been selected for the implementation of RVY. The Scheme is being implemented through ‘Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO)’, (a Public Sector Undertaking under this Ministry) as the sole implementing Agency. Beneficiaries in each district are identified by a team of doctors/technicians/other professionals to assess their needs and to prescribe the requisite Assisted Living Devices in the Assessment Camps organized by ALIMCO in collaboration with the respective District Administration. The devices are then distributed to the identified beneficiaries in the camp mode. Further, regular communications are made from this Ministry to respective States/UTs Governments for extending cooperation to ALIMCO in organizing these Camps. So far, a total of 96 distribution camps have been organized nationwide providing 2,59,924 physical aids to 1,00,229 Senior Citizens beneficiaries in BPL Category.
This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Rattan Lal Kataria in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
