(a) What are the Private and Public network and support systems operative in Indian society for the aged? Suggest measures to…

(a)

• Context: India's population aged 60 and above is projected to reach over 20% by 2050 (UNFPA India Ageing Report 2023). LASI (2017–18) found that about three-quarters of elderly people have chronic diseases, and a 2023 LASI-DAD study estimated 7.4% have dementia.

Private networks and support systems:

• family and kin: co-residence with sons, care by daughters-in-law and daughters, and remittances from migrant children;
• community and religious institutions: caste associations, temples, gurdwaras, waqf charities, ashrams;
• NGOs: HelpAge India (1978), Dignity Foundation, day-care centres, helplines;
• market services: old-age homes, assisted living, home nursing, paid care workers, and elder-care startups;
• neighbourhood ties: resident welfare associations, self-help groups and senior citizens' associations.

Public support systems:

• Law: the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, with tribunals for maintenance;
• Policy: the National Policy on Older Persons (1999) and the National Policy for Senior Citizens (draft, 2011);
• Income:
• the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension (under NSAP, 1995);
• Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (2017) and the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme;
• Health:
• the National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE, 2010);
• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY for everyone aged 70 and above (2024);
• Welfare:
• the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana (2021), which includes old-age homes and the Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana for assistive devices;
• the Elderline 14567 helpline;
• the SAGE portal for elder-care startups;
• States: Kerala's Vayomithram and pakalveedu day-care centres.

Challenges for caregivers:

• the burden falls mainly on women, often unpaid and invisible;
• the "sandwich generation" cares for children and parents at once;
• financial strain from out-of-pocket health costs and lost earnings;
• physical and emotional burnout, especially with dementia and bedridden patients;
• lack of training, respite and support services;
• migrant children face distance care problems;
• paid care workers are informal, poorly paid and untrained;
• stress can contribute to neglect and abuse.

Measures:

• Support for family caregivers: a caregiver allowance, care leave, flexible work and tax relief;
• Respite and day care: public and community day-care centres and short-stay homes;
• Home-based care: geriatric services and palliative care through health and wellness centres, drawing on Kerala's palliative care model;
• Training: certified courses for family and paid caregivers, and formalising paid care work under the labour codes;
• Dementia care: memory clinics, awareness and support groups;
• Community care: self-help groups, volunteers and inter-generational programmes;
• Better implementation of the 2007 Act and of pensions;
• Gender sharing: encouraging men's involvement in care.

• Conclusion: as the family's capacity shrinks, India needs a mixed care economy of family, community, state and market, with caregivers themselves supported.

(b)

• The claim: education is the single cure for poverty, inequality, backwardness and social evils.

What NEP 2020 offers:

• the 5+3+3+4 structure and universal early childhood care and education;
• foundational literacy and numeracy (NIPUN Bharat);
• mother-tongue instruction, preferably up to Class 5;
• vocational education and internships from Class 6;
• multidisciplinary higher education with multiple entry and exit points, and a target GER of 50% by 2035;
• a Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions;
• teacher reform, and public spending of 6% of GDP.

Where education does address ills:

• Durkheim's moral socialisation and Parsons's meritocratic mobility;
• Ambedkar's call to "educate, agitate, organise", and Phule's emphasis on education for the oppressed;
• Kerala: female education lowered fertility and infant mortality and raised health;
• education reduces child marriage, improves health and civic participation, and supports scientific temper (Article 51A(h)).

Why it is not the only panacea:

• Structural ills need structural remedies: poverty, unemployment, landlessness, caste and patriarchy need land reform, jobs, social protection and law. The ILO's India Employment Report 2024 shows educated unemployment rising;
• Reproduction: Bourdieu's cultural capital and Bowles and Gintis's correspondence principle show schooling reproducing inequality. Private and coaching tracks favour the privileged;
• Credentialism: Ronald Dore's diploma disease;
• Implementation gaps in NEP:
• public spending remains around 4–4.6% of GDP, well short of the 6% target;
• there are teacher shortages and a digital divide;
• there are concerns about privatisation, the three-language formula and centralisation;
• Values: education without equity and ethics can also produce "educated" prejudice, such as dowry among the educated.

• Balanced view: education is a necessary and powerful lever, and NEP 2020 has sound ideas. Without jobs, redistribution, health and social reform, it cannot cure every ill.

(c)

• From stigma to self-chosen identity: Dalit movements turned the ascribed stigma of "untouchable" and the paternalistic "Harijan" into a self-chosen political identity, "Dalit", meaning "broken" or "oppressed".

Phases:

• Early anti-caste movements:
• Jyotirao Phule's Satyashodhak Samaj (1873) offered a counter-history of Shudras and Ati-Shudras;
• Ayyankali in Kerala led struggles over roads and schools;
• the Ad-Dharm movement in Punjab (1926) claimed a separate original religion;
• the Matua movement in Bengal.
• Ambedkar:
• the Mahad Satyagraha (1927) and the burning of the Manusmriti;
• the Kalaram temple entry satyagraha (1930);
• the demand for separate electorates and the Poona Pact (1932);
• the Independent Labour Party (1936), the Scheduled Castes Federation (1942) and the RPI;
• the constitutional safeguards;
• conversion to Buddhism (1956), Navayana, offered an alternative religious identity.
• The Dalit Panthers (1972): modelled on the Black Panthers, they popularised the term "Dalit". Dalit literature (Namdeo Dhasal, Baburao Bagul, Om Prakash Valmiki's Joothan, 1997) built a cultural voice.
• Political assertion: BAMCEF (1978), DS4 (1981) and the BSP (1984) under Kanshi Ram and Mayawati built a Bahujan identity. This was part of what Yogendra Yadav called the "second democratic upsurge".
• Recent phase:
• Una (2016), #JusticeForRohith (2016), the Bhima Koregaon commemoration (2018) and the Bhim Army;
• digital Dalit counter-publics;
• the Dalit feminist voice: the National Federation of Dalit Women (1995) and Sharmila Rege.

How movements build identity:

• Naming and self-respect: "Dalit", "Bahujan" and "Jai Bhim";
• Symbols and memory: Ambedkar statues, the blue flag, and heroes such as Jhalkari Bai (Badri Narayan);
• Counter-history: narratives of an original casteless society, and Bhima Koregaon;
• Religion: Buddhism and Ravidassia;
• Knowledge: Kancha Ilaiah (Why I Am Not a Hindu, 1996), Gopal Guru and Gail Omvedt (Dalits and the Democratic Revolution, 1994);
• Political power and constitutional citizenship as the basis of dignity.

Limits:

• fragmentation along sub-caste lines, such as Madigas and Malas in the sub-classification debate;
• co-optation by mainstream parties;
• a class divide between the Dalit middle class and the poor;
• some Sanskritisation rather than rejection of hierarchy.

• Conclusion: Dalit movements have transformed a stigmatised caste status into an assertive political and cultural identity rooted in dignity and equality. Internal diversity makes that identity plural and contested.