Jaya Bachchan's Statements About Senior Citizens Peddled With Misleading Claims

Jaya Bachchan did speak about senior citizens, but did not speak on the remarks in the claim.

A viral post claiming that Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Jaya Bachchan delivered a speech about senior citizens in the Parliament.

It states that she demanded several privileges for the welfare of senior citizens in India involving pension, concessions, insurance, priority for court cases, etc.

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This claim is misleading.

• While Bachchan did address the topic of senior citizens in the Parliament in February 2023, she did not make the demands included in the viral post.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search on Google which led us to a news report by The Hindu.

• This was published on 8 February 2023 and it mentioned that Bachchan raised senior citizens’ issues in her address at the Rajya Sabha.

• However, it did not include the list of demands stated in the viral claim.

• Taking a cue, we looked for the official recording of this session on Sansad TV's YouTube channel.

• Bachchan's 'Motion of Thanks' was shared on 8 February 2023 and at the 5:02 timestamp, she quoted the National Statistics Office (NSO) and stated that people above 60 years of age in India were projected to reach 41 percent by 2031.

• She further questioned the government about its provisions and action plan for senior citizens.

• Bachchan added, "All over the world, social security is provided by the Government to the handicapped, disabled and elderly people but in our country, no such provision is there. Millions of senior citizens have served the country to bring this country to this standard but they have been completely ignored, and they have been deprived of dignity of age in spite of their hard work and dedication to this country."

• We also found the verbatim script of this session and it can be viewed here.

Conclusion: A misleading post about MP Jaya Bachchan demanding several amenities for the senior citizens in India is going viral on the internet.

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