Reforms in legal aid and awareness with regard to the aged in India: A case for an inclusive approach

With the increase in the ageing population in India and globally, there is a need to understand the specific challenges faced by the aged from the perspective of legal impediments for securing their well-being. Laws and legal institutions need to be simplified while improving the overall accessibility to justice for senior citizens. There is a need to usher in systemic changes to protect senior citizens through an inclusive legal system. This article attempts to understand the challenges faced by senior citizens and traces how legal aid and awareness can be an effective tool to remedy some of the issues they confront. It begins by offering a descriptive analysis of the relevant Law Commission reports to understand the aspirations that are laid down with reference to granting legal aid and awareness. Such an analysis was sought so as to provide inputs to the semi-structured interviews that were conducted with senior citizens who were exposed to certain vulnerabilities because of lack of accessibility of legal aid/awareness. The insights from the interviews provide evidence of the experiences of senior citizens in engaging with the law and legal institutions. These experiences aid in presenting the gaps between the recommendations of the Law Commission reports and the realities on the ground. To this end, the article examines the role and relevance of legal aid for the aged while highlighting the inability of the system to respond to some of the legal needs of the elderly and how these needs can be served by building a robust and rigorous legal aid and awareness mechanism.