For the sake of understanding, the plight of "aged destitute" we first classify the aged into two groups, viz.

• The educated and hence employed in jobs with a decent standard of living if not a lavish one.
  
• The uneducated sector comprise of hard working laborers, workers on daily wages become dependent completely in their old age.

Yesterday's India always boasted of a joint family where children lived in their responsibility to look after old parents or grandparents.

The globalizations in economic growth and higher education (For Example IT Industries) have made the youth to leave their family circle and move to a different society for employment. This has lessened their responsibilities towards their families causing the decay of joint family system to nuclear family system abandoning their parents.

Destitute of elders could be to the various causes such as Elder Abuse by stressed children, elders thrown out of house due to property or financial matters etc. The people of the unorganized sector mostly will indulge in many social evils, causing to live a valueless life style which scatters their family. The elderly people have been the most affected to all these socio economic changes.

In 2001, one third of the elders were living below the poverty line and one third just above it, i.e. 60% of older persons are in a vulnerable situation without adequate food, clothing, medical treatment and shelter.

Elderly Destitute : Population of the elderly people, above 60 years of age is increasing at a faster rate than the general population. The annual rate of growth of the elders in India is of 3.8% per annum compared to the general population growth of 1.95%.

Number of elderly persons in India in 2001 is 77 million and in 2013 it will be 100 million. In 2001,