Goa’s statutory senior citizen council and district committees have remained non-functional since March 2025, leaving elderly residents without the formal platforms meant to address their grievances and advise the government on implementing welfare protections.
The lapse was reported as the state marked Senior Citizens’ Day on Thursday. The earlier bodies completed their tenure in March 2025, but the committees have not yet been reconstituted, according to sources in Goa’s social welfare department.
The file for reconstituting the bodies has been pending with the minister for social welfare for a prolonged period, the sources said. Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Dessai did not comment on the matter.
The bodies derive their authority from Chapter VII of the Goa Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, 2009, framed under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. The framework is intended to create an institutional mechanism through which senior citizens can raise concerns and the government can coordinate welfare measures.
Under Rule 21, the government may establish a state council to advise it on the effective implementation of the Act and the state rules. The council is chaired by the minister responsible for senior citizens’ welfare. Its members include officials from departments dealing with disabilities, senior citizens’ welfare, health, home, publicity and pensions, along with specialists, activists and eminent senior citizens nominated by the government.
The director of the Directorate of Social Welfare serves as the council’s member secretary. The state council is required to meet at least once every six months, providing a periodic forum for reviewing implementation and taking up issues affecting elderly residents.
At the district level, Rule 22 provides for committees to advise on the effective and coordinated implementation of the law. These committees are required to meet once every quarter. Their composition, the tenure of non-ex-officio members and procedures are to be specified by the government.
The prolonged vacancy therefore affects more than the existence of advisory bodies. It removes the statutory forums through which complaints can be collectively reviewed, departments can be asked to respond and local implementation concerns can be placed before officials and nominated representatives of senior citizens.
Roland Martins, convener of civic forum Goacan, said the defunct bodies had left senior citizens without the main platform mandated under the central law and Goa’s rules. “The quarterly meetings are actually the place where you have to deal with all the complaints and their intervention. This is the main platform mandated under the central Act with state rules,” he said.
The social welfare department’s file for reconstituting the council and district committees remains with the minister, according to the department sources. No timeline for restoring the bodies was provided in the report.
