There is no licence. No authority in India inspects a private assisted living facility before it opens, and none can shut one down for failing a standard. That is the single fact everything else on this page hangs from.
What India has instead is six instruments: one Act, two sets of central guidelines, one binding state order, one state housing policy and one voluntary accreditation scheme. Together they produce real benchmarks and almost no enforcement.
India also came within one parliamentary step of fixing this. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 would have required every private care home to register with a state authority. It lapsed, and nothing has replaced it.
Key takeaways
- No licensing regime exists for private assisted living anywhere in India. No pre-opening inspection, no penalty, no register.
- Six instruments govern the sector, and only one of them is binding: the MahaRERA order of 8 May 2024, which applies to retirement housing in Maharashtra alone.
- The 2019 Amendment Bill would have created registration authorities in every state. It lapsed on the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, confirmed in a written parliamentary reply of 3 December 2025.
- The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment published Minimum Standards for Senior Citizen Homes in March 2024. Fifteen sections, checkable numbers, no inspectorate.
- Maharashtra is ahead of the rest of India on both the building rules and the 2025 housing policy, and even there the *care* is unregulated.
- India prescribes no staff-to-resident ratio and no statutory definition of a care level.
- The practical consequence: the inspection is the family's job, and this page ends with how to do it.
Quick answer: is assisted living regulated in India?
Question | Answer |
Is a licence required to open an assisted living facility? | No |
Does any authority inspect before residents move in? | No, except retirement housing in Maharashtra |
Are there published minimum standards? | Yes, from March 2024 |
Are those standards legally enforceable? | No |
Is there a penalty for falling short? | No |
Is there a public register of facilities? | No national register |
Is a staff-to-resident ratio prescribed? | No |
Is there a statutory definition of a care level? | No |
Is accreditation available? | Yes, voluntary, through ASLI |
Filled means it exists. Half means in some states only. Cross means it does not exist.
The six instruments
What each one actually does, and what it leaves undone.
1. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007
The governing statute, and the one most often misdescribed as regulating old age homes.
What it does. Gives parents and senior citizens a legal right to claim maintenance from children and relatives. Creates Maintenance Tribunals in every district to hear those claims. Requires every state, under Section 19(1), to establish at least one old age home per district for indigent senior citizens. Provides for protection of life and property.
What it does not do. It does not license, register, inspect or set standards for a private facility. A home can operate without any reference to this Act at all.
2. Minimum Standards for Senior Citizen Homes, March 2024
The most substantial document in the list, and the most useful to a family.
Issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment by Office Memorandum on 15 March 2024, it runs to fifteen sections: location, infrastructure and facilities, human resource, health and medical services, nutritional care and kitchen, cleanliness and hygiene, safety and security, recreational and social activities, emotional and psychological support, resident rights and dignity, family and community involvement, sensitivity and diversity, financial transparency, environmental considerations, and governance.
Numbers a family can verify on a single visit:
Requirement | Figure |
Bedroom or dormitory area per resident | 7.5 sq m |
Sleeping space, single occupancy | at least 6 sq m per resident |
Sleeping space, dormitory | at least 4 sq m per resident |
Floor to ceiling height | at least 2.5 m |
Handrail height along steps | 900 mm to 1000 mm |
Boundary wall | at least 4 ft |
Isolation room for sick residents | at least 4 beds |
CCTV retention | reviewable for at least 365 days |
Toilet cleaning | three times a day, with a register |
Emergency call button | one at every bed |
Intercom | one in every room |
Wheelchairs on site | at least one, working |
Supervisor qualification | graduate degree |
Staff screening | medical check-up and police verification against Aadhaar |
Abuse redressal committee | at least one external member, District Welfare Officer as nodal officer |
It also requires geo-tagging of the facility, a medicine register carrying expiry dates, monthly health reviews attended by the superintendent, a medical expert, the resident and a family member, a turning schedule for bedridden residents to prevent bed sores, a fire safety certificate and audit, a charter of residents' rights displayed prominently and handed over at admission, and a single dedicated bank account with multiple accounts not permitted.
What it does not do. It creates no inspectorate, no licence and no penalty. Compliance matters most where a home seeks grant-in-aid under the Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens. For a private paid facility it is advisory.
Use it as a checklist rather than a guarantee. That is the honest way to read it, and it is what makes it genuinely valuable. How those standards map onto what a home actually delivers is in what services are included in assisted living.
3. MoHUA Model Guidelines for Retirement Homes, March 2019
Issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 6 March 2019, addressing the built environment: elderly-friendly design, physical standards and specifications for retirement homes.
Its most useful contribution is contractual rather than physical. The guidelines introduced the tripartite agreement, executed between the developer, the service provider or retirement home operator, and the allottee, with disclosure of the service provider's technical competence at the time of the agreement to sell. That document is where the ongoing service obligations live after the builder has gone.
What it does not do. Model guidelines are for states to adopt. They are not binding of their own force.
4. The MahaRERA order, May 2024
The only binding rule in this list.
On 8 May 2024, following a draft in February, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority became the first regulator in India to notify dedicated specifications for retirement housing, mandatory before a project may be advertised or marketed as a retirement home. Requirements include lifts sized for wheelchair users with audio and visual signage, no steps in corridors with ramps at level changes, ergonomic senior-friendly furniture, easy-grip handles, alarm switches at entry doors and in bedrooms, common areas and bathrooms, CCTV on every floor and at gates, power backup in every apartment with mandatory connections in bathroom and kitchen, and fire-fighting and evacuation preparedness.
What it does not do. It regulates the *building*, under real estate law, in *one state*. It says nothing about the care delivered inside it. That split runs through the whole sector, and is worked through in assisted living vs retirement home.
5. The Maharashtra Housing Policy, 2025
Maharashtra went further again. Its 2025 housing policy establishes Senior Citizen Housing as a distinct building category within the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations, and requires projects to register both with RERA and with a district-level Monitoring Committee.
Development conditions include a minimum plot area of 3,000 sq m, 12 metre wide roads, and integration into residential and green zones. Required amenities include recreational areas, 24 hour ambulance services, nursing stations and proximity to medical facilities. Buyers get stamp duty cut to a flat ₹1,000, and developers receive technology grants of ₹500 per sq m, solar subsidies and a 1% GST cap.
This is the closest thing in India to a purpose-built regulatory category for senior housing, and it exists in one state.
6. ASLI accreditation, December 2020
On 11 December 2020, the Association of Senior Living India, with Standards Wise International India and The Commonwealth Association for Ageing, launched the first Standards and Accreditation Matrix for private senior living and care communities in India. It comprises eight quality standards covering governance, management and personnel, design and construction, facilities management, resident engagement and experience, technology and information management, and hygiene, safety and infection prevention. Criteria break into indicators measured against evidence, producing a validated rating, with both mandatory and optional criteria so that entry-level communities can participate.
What it does not do. It is entirely voluntary. A facility can decline to be assessed and face no consequence. Elkin is a primary member of ASLI.
The Bill that would have changed this
What would have changed, and why it did not.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11 December 2019. It is the most important document in Indian senior care policy, and it never became law.
What it would have done:
- Required every senior citizen care home and every home care service agency to register with a registration authority set up by the state government
- Empowered the central government to prescribe minimum standards for those homes, covering food, infrastructure and medical facilities
- Required home care agencies to employ trained and certified staff
- Removed the ₹10,000 monthly ceiling on maintenance awarded by a tribunal
- Widened the definition of "children" to include step-children, adoptive children, children-in-law and the legal guardians of minor children
- Required nodal police officers in every police station for senior citizen matters
- Provided expedited hearings for applicants aged 80 and above
- Set penalties for abandonment or abuse: imprisonment of three to six months, a fine of up to ₹10,000, or both
The Standing Committee reported on 29 January 2021. The Bill did not progress to a vote, and it lapsed on the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. That status was confirmed in a written parliamentary reply on 3 December 2025, which recorded simply that the Bill lapsed after dissolution. No successor has been announced.
The instruments that shaped Indian senior care regulation.
Set against the demographic trajectory, that gap is stark. India's population aged 60 and above reached 149 million in 2022 and is projected at 347 million by 2050, and around 8.8 million Indian seniors already live with dementia. The regulatory framework for the facilities that will care for them is a set of unenforceable benchmarks and one state's building code.
Where else the sector touches the law
An operator in India is not unregulated in general. It is unregulated *as senior care*, and complies instead with rules written for other sectors:
- Trust, society or company law, depending on how the entity is constituted
- Shops and establishments registration, and municipal trade licensing
- Fire safety certification from the local fire office or municipal corporation
- Food safety licensing under FSSAI, where meals are prepared
- Building and occupancy approvals under local development control regulations
- RERA, where units are sold rather than let
- Clinical establishment registration, where a facility runs anything the state treats as a clinical service
- Labour and provident fund obligations for staff
- The Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens under Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana, where a home receives grant-in-aid, which brings reporting conditions with it
The registration route an operator actually follows is set out in the old age home registration process.
None of these examines whether a resident is being cared for well. That is the gap the 2019 Bill was written to close.
What families should actually do
Because nobody has checked on your behalf, treat the March 2024 standards as your inspection sheet.
- Ask what registration the home holds, and read the certificate. Trust, society, company, shops and establishments, FSSAI, fire safety. Registration proves the entity exists; it does not certify care.
- Ask whether the home is ASLI accredited, and if not, why not.
- Take the minimum standards list to the visit. Space per resident, call button at every bed, isolation room, boundary wall, CCTV retention, wheelchairs, handrails, anti-skid tiles, outward-opening bathroom doors.
- Ask for the abuse redressal committee and the name of its external member. The 2024 standards require one, and few homes have it.
- Ask for the residents' rights charter and the resident handbook. Both are required at admission.
- Ask for the staff-to-resident ratio at 2am. No figure is prescribed anywhere in India, so the answer is entirely down to the operator, and the ratios operators actually run are in levels of care in assisted living.
- Visit unannounced, at a mealtime. The full method is in are old age homes safe in India, and the complete question set is in questions to ask an assisted living facility.
- Read the agreement, including the exclusions list, the annual increment and the grounds on which the home can ask you to leave.
The bottom line
India has produced a great deal of thoughtful senior care policy and almost no enforcement. The March 2024 minimum standards are genuinely good, the MahaRERA order is genuinely binding, and between them they cover the building and leave the care untouched everywhere outside one state.
Until a successor to the 2019 Bill is introduced and passed, the position is simple and worth stating plainly to any family: nobody has inspected the home you are considering, and nobody will.
That is not a reason to avoid assisted living. It is a reason to inspect it yourself, and the March 2024 standards give you a better checklist for doing that than anything else in Indian senior care.
Comparing homes? Elkin verifies registration, care levels and staffing before listing, so you can compare assisted living communities across India by care type, city and budget.
Frequently asked questions
Is assisted living regulated in India?
Not as care. No authority licenses or inspects a private assisted living facility before it opens, and no penalty attaches to falling short of any standard. What exists is the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007, central minimum standards published in March 2024, MoHUA model guidelines from 2019, a binding MahaRERA order covering retirement housing in Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Housing Policy 2025, and voluntary ASLI accreditation.
Who regulates old age homes and assisted living in India?
It depends on the home. State Social Welfare Departments run and inspect government homes. Charitable homes register as trusts or societies, and in Kerala with the Orphanage Control Board. Private assisted living facilities have no senior-care-specific regulator at all, and comply instead with general laws on fire safety, food safety, trade licensing and building approvals.
What are the Minimum Standards for Senior Citizen Homes?
A document issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on 15 March 2024, running to fifteen sections from location to governance. It sets checkable requirements including 7.5 sq m of bedroom area per resident, an emergency call button at every bed, a four-bed isolation room, CCTV retained for 365 days, police verification of staff and an abuse redressal committee with an external member. It is advisory, with no inspectorate and no penalty.
Do assisted living facilities in India need a licence?
No. There is no senior care licence in India. An operator registers as a trust, society or company and obtains the general approvals any business needs, such as fire safety certification, FSSAI licensing where food is prepared, and municipal trade licensing. None of those assesses the quality of care.
What happened to the Senior Citizens Amendment Bill 2019?
It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 11 December 2019 and would have required every private care home and home care agency to register with a state authority, with the central government prescribing minimum standards. The Standing Committee reported on 29 January 2021, the Bill did not progress to a vote, and it lapsed on the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. A written parliamentary reply of 3 December 2025 confirmed the lapse, and no replacement has been announced.
Is there a prescribed staff-to-resident ratio in India?
No. The March 2024 minimum standards say only that the ratio "shall be set as per the number of residents" and prescribe no figure. In practice Indian operators run roughly one carer to ten residents at low care levels, one to six at moderate, and one to three in high dependency and memory care, but none of that is a legal requirement.
Which Indian state regulates senior housing best?
Maharashtra. MahaRERA notified mandatory retirement housing specifications on 8 May 2024, the first regulator in India to do so, and the Maharashtra Housing Policy 2025 makes senior citizen housing a distinct building category requiring both RERA registration and a district monitoring committee. Even there, only the building is regulated and not the care.
Is ASLI accreditation mandatory?
No. The Standards and Accreditation Matrix launched by ASLI with Standards Wise International India and The Commonwealth Association for Ageing in December 2020 is entirely voluntary. It assesses eight quality standards and produces a validated rating, and a facility can decline to participate with no consequence.
What can I do if an assisted living facility is negligent?
Call Elder Line on the toll-free number 14567. You can also approach the District Maintenance Tribunal established under the 2007 Act, the District Social Welfare Office, the consumer forum for a breach of the service agreement, or the police where abuse or financial exploitation is suspected. Document everything, including dates, names and written communication with the home.
Is India planning to regulate assisted living?
Nothing is confirmed. The 2019 Amendment Bill lapsed and no successor has been announced as of the parliamentary reply of 3 December 2025. NITI Aayog's February 2024 position paper, Senior Care Reforms in India, recommends building and strengthening assisted living facilities, but a position paper is not a regulation.
