The Indian Government is assisting the elderly through schemes and benefits
After living the best and most hard-working days of their lives, senior citizens finally deserve a break from all the hours they clocked in during their hay days. The Government is working on various schemes to assist these people in multiple ways so they can enjoy their old age, stress-free.
How do senior citizens apply for Government schemes?
The Government created a system of senior citizen cards for people who classify as seniors. These cards are linked with their details, address, and identification and can be used in most places to avail of discounts. Additionally, they receive discounts on buses, at markets, and in many other places by just providing their senior citizen card details. These individuals also receive discounts on railway and flight tickets.
How do they apply for a senior citizens card?
The cards were initially applied for through the office but with time this was becoming difficult since the elderly could not commute as often as they would have liked. Another issue was that the process needed a lot more than one trip which meant collecting forms, coming back on a different date with information and documentation to hand everything over. It just seemed like a lot of redundancies.
This application process was then taken to the interwebs to make it a lot more convenient for everyone and seniors could now fill out their forms by spending not more than 30 minutes. However, the new main issue was that most of the elderly who needed to apply were not very tech-savvy. This just forced them to go back to the office defeating the whole purpose of the website. So the website was then revamped and improved again to make it easier to understand while proving to save time and effort.
The results were great since the number of applications going through skyrocketed.
What are the criteria for getting a senior citizen card?
Senior citizen cards are given to anyone above 60 years of age. Additionally, they need Government proof stating they are permanent residents of any of the states in India.
They have to submit documentation to prove the above requirements. They can do this with their birth certificate to show their age. They also have to provide identification to show their ID and proof of address, which can be done using their passport, Aadhaar card, election card, and so on. Finally, they need to provide multiple photographs of themselves.
It should be noted that the application process for the senior citizen card is completely free of cost. However, if it is being handled through a third party and not directly through the main website, there might be a small fee.
Although this is the basic blueprint for getting a senior citizen card, it might vary slightly across different states in the country. For instance, some rural parts of India do not have a functional website to cater to those individuals and handle the process manually. However, it is likely that the website is being worked on and will be up and running soon.
In addition to senior citizen’s schemes, there are plenty of government opportunities for freshers in terms of employment at the state and central government levels. For example, you can check out all government jobs in India with the latest job notifications updated on a daily basis and issued by government departments for 10th, 12th pass, diploma and graduates in multiple categories.
