What are the Private and Public network and support systems operative in Indian society for the aged ? Suggest measures to curb down the challenges before care givers of the aged. (Answer in 350 words)

- What are the Private and Public network and support systems operative in Indian society for the aged ? Suggest measures to curb down the challenges before care givers of the aged. (Answer in 350 words)
Introduction
India's elderly are supported mainly by their families and only marginally by the state, and the cost of that arrangement falls on caregivers whom neither policy nor the household counts.
Body
1. Private and community support: The large majority of older Indians live with a child, and co-residence remains the principal form of security, reinforced by the expectation that the son who inherits maintains the parent. The actual work, however, is done by women, wives, daughters and daughters-in-law, unpaid and unrecorded. Beyond the household lie caste and neighbourhood reciprocity, religious institutions, temples, gurdwaras and dharamshalas that feed and shelter, remittances from migrant children, senior citizens' associations, and a growing urban market in paid attendants and private old-age homes.
2. Public support: The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act of 2007 makes maintenance a legal duty enforceable through tribunals. The National Policy on Older Persons frames the field; the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens funds homes and day care; the National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly builds geriatric capacity. Income support comes through the old-age pension under the National Social Assistance Programme and, for the formal sector, provident fund and pension schemes, while health cover under Ayushman Bharat now extends to everyone above seventy.
3. What caregivers face: Smaller families and migration leave fewer hands, often none. The caregiver is typically a middle-aged woman, frequently also employed, with no training, no respite and no recognition. The burden is financial, since out-of-pocket spending dominates Indian health expenditure and chronic and dementia care runs for years; it is physical, in homes not built for frailty; and it is emotional, with burnout and isolation unaddressed, which is also the context of much elder abuse.
4. Measures that would ease them: Recognise care as work through a caregiver allowance, paid care leave and respite services. Build a trained community cadre, extending the ASHA's role to geriatric home visits and certifying home attendants. Make the old-age pension universal and adequate rather than narrowly targeted. Take geriatric and palliative care to the primary level, on the model of Kerala's neighbourhood palliative care networks. Regulate old-age homes, and make the 2007 Act's tribunals decide quickly.
Conclusion
With the elderly moving from a tenth of the population towards a fifth by mid-century, family care cannot be assumed; it has to be paid for, trained and shared.