India, April 21 -- The Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC-2011) had indicated that over 40 million rural households did not have a 25-year-plus literate person in the household. With one-in-five non-literate households and one-in-four landless agricultural labour households, India must look after a generation of non-literate and unskilled wage labourers as they reach old age. Per capita monthly consumption expenditure at under Rs.2,000 (2022-23) in the bottom 20% of families also reminds of households that do not get a dignified survival.

With increasing nuclearisation of families even in rural areas, old persons living by themselves on a few days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), free ...