The Union Government is expected to take up The Maintenance & Welfare of Parents & Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Parliament’s monsoon session, which began today. PM Modi remarked in an all-party meeting a day before the starting of the session that genuine debates should take place in the House during the monsoon session.
The Union Government is considering the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019. It’s also on the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs’ list of measures expected to be debated during the monsoon session of 2021.
The Union Cabinet originally approved this bill for the maintenance of older persons and parents in December 2019, however it has yet to be passed by Parliament. Its goal is to prevent individuals from leaving their parents or older parents. The bill ensures the upkeep and welfare of parents and older people to meet their fundamental requirements, as well as their safety and security.
Following two terrible rounds of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, if passed by Parliament during the current session, this Bill will offer elderly people and parents greater control.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019, addresses the following issues :
- Stepchildren, adoptive children, children-in-law, and the legal guardian of young children have all been added to the term by the Amendment Bill.
- The law expands the meaning of “children.” Children and grandchildren are included in the Act’s definition of children, although minors are not. Stepchildren, adoptive children, children-in-law, and the legal guardian of young children have all been added to the term by the Amendment Bill.
- The amendment bill’s definition of parent covers not only biological, adoptive, and step-parents, but also parents-in-law and grandparents.
- The amended bill further broadens the concept of maintenance to encompass the provision of healthcare, safety, and security for parents to live a dignified life. The Act’s previous definition of maintenance only covered the supply of food, clothes, a place to live, medical care, and treatment.
- The elimination of the Rs 10,000 maintenance charge ceiling is one of the most significant changes proposed by the amendment bill. If the measure becomes law, a maintenance sum of greater than Rs 10,000 may be given. Maintenance tribunals will have to take into account the parent’s or senior citizen’s level of living and wages, as well as the children’s earnings, while determining the maintenance amount.
- The number of days that children and relatives have to pay the maintenance payment would be lowered from 30 to 15.
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