Elderline 14567 — National Helpline for Senior Citizens, Kerala

What is Elderline 14567?

Elderline is a national-level toll-free helpline for the welfare of senior citizens, and in Kerala it is operated under the Department of Social Justice from a centre in Thiruvananthapuram. The number is 14567, and it is free to call.

According to the Kerala Social Justice Department, Elderline was set up by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the National Institute of Social Defence and State governments, and Kerala's helpline has been established in Trivandrum under the department. The department places the helpline in the context of the state's demography: Kerala is fast ageing, with a growing elderly population and increasing demands on fiscal, health and social security mechanisms, and the government is working towards creating an age-friendly Kerala.

Elderline is different in kind from most entries in a scheme directory. There is no application, no eligibility certificate, no income limit and no waiting list. A senior citizen picks up a phone and dials 14567. That is the whole process. The stated purpose is that the helpline will assist and comfort senior citizens, and address their concerns and grievances.

Key facts about Elderline in Kerala

• Number: 14567, toll-free.
• Timings: 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.
• Days: functional throughout the week.
• Location: the Kerala helpline is set up in Thiruvananthapuram under the Department of Social Justice.
• Cost: free: both the call and the assistance.

How does the Elderline Connect Centre work?

The Kerala Social Justice Department calls the helpline the "Connect Centre", and describes a specific staffing structure behind it. The programme is led by a team comprising a Project Manager, an Admin and Finance officer, Leaders, Field Response Officers and Call Officers. Interventions are steered through the Call Officers and the Field Response Officers.

That two-role split is the most useful thing for a caller to understand, because it explains what happens after the phone is answered.

Call Officers take the call. For a caller who needs information, which scheme applies, where the District Social Justice Office is, how a pension problem is raised, what the Maintenance Tribunal does, the Call Officer provides the necessary service directly. Where the situation calls for expertise the Connect Centre does not itself hold, the call is redirected based on its nature; to professional counsellors, to the Legal Services Authority, and to other specialists.

Field Response Officers go to the ground. This is what separates Elderline from an ordinary information line. Two situations are described explicitly by the department:

• Rescue of abandoned elderly persons. The field team shifts the elderly person into a nearby old age home and then tries to reunite them with their family, working with the police and other stakeholders.
• Abuse calls. The field team conducts a basic enquiry and helps the senior citizen file a complaint or take legal action where necessary.

The helpline works in collaboration with a named set of partners, the police, the health department, the legal services authority, local self-governments and NGOs. That network is what allows a single phone call to turn into an actual intervention.

What services does Elderline provide?

The department groups Elderline's services under four heads.

• Information: about schemes, entitlements, offices, procedures and rights of senior citizens.
• Guidance, help with working out what to do next in a particular situation.
• Emotional support; including redirection to professional counsellors where the caller needs sustained help rather than a single conversation.
• Field intervention: physical response on the ground through Field Response Officers.

In practice, the calls that reach a helpline like this fall into recognisable groups: loneliness and distress; questions about pension, ration and welfare schemes; neglect or refusal of maintenance by children; abandonment; physical, emotional or financial abuse; property disputes where an elderly person has been dispossessed after transferring property; and medical or care needs that the family is not meeting. Elderline is designed to be a single entry point for all of these, so that a senior citizen does not have to know in advance whether their problem belongs to the police, the revenue department, a court or a counsellor.

Who is eligible to call Elderline 14567?

Elderline has no eligibility form, no income test and no certificate. The only question is whether the call concerns a senior citizen in Kerala.

You can call Elderline if:

• You are a senior citizen in Kerala with any concern, grievance or need for information; there is no minimum severity.
• You are a family member, relative, neighbour, ward member, social worker or ordinary passer-by who is worried about a senior citizen, or who has seen an abandoned or distressed elderly person.
• You are an elderly person facing abuse, neglect, abandonment, denial of maintenance, or a property or pension problem.
• You are simply lonely and want to talk to someone. Emotional support is a listed service, not an afterthought.

Elderline is not the right number, and a caller is not eligible for its assistance, in these situations:

• The situation is an immediate life-threatening emergency outside 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Elderline operates within those hours, so call 112 for police and emergency services, or 108 for an ambulance.
• The person you are calling about is not a senior citizen. Children's cases go to Childline, and cases concerning women go to the Women Helpline, both listed separately by the Kerala Social Justice Department.
• You are calling from outside Kerala about a person outside Kerala. Elderline is a national helpline with state-level Connect Centres, so a case in another state is handled by that state's centre on the same number.
• You want a cash benefit approved on the phone. Elderline can tell you which scheme applies and how to apply, but sanction of a scheme benefit is done by the District Social Justice Office, not by the helpline.

How to apply for help from Elderline 14567

1. Dial 14567 from any phone, between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, on any day of the week. The call is toll-free.
2. Tell the Call Officer what has happened, in plain terms. You do not need to know which department is responsible or which scheme applies — working that out is the Call Officer's job.
3. Give the location clearly, house name or number, ward, panchayat or municipality, district, and a landmark. If a Field Response Officer needs to reach an abandoned or abused elderly person, the address is the single thing that decides whether the intervention happens.
4. Give a contact number that will be answered, whether it is the senior citizen's own phone or that of a neighbour or relative who is willing to help.
5. Note the reference or case details the Call Officer gives you, and the name of the officer if offered.
6. Follow the guidance given. Depending on the case this may mean going to the District Social Justice Office, meeting a counsellor, approaching the Legal Services Authority, or waiting for the field team to arrive.
7. Call back on the same number if nothing happens, quoting the earlier case details, rather than starting a fresh complaint.

What documents should I keep ready when calling Elderline?

Nothing is required to make the call. But if the call is likely to lead to a formal intervention, having these to hand makes the follow-up faster:

Which other helplines should I know about?

The Kerala Social Justice Department lists several helplines alongside Elderline, and using the right one saves time:

• Elderline 14567; senior citizens, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, all seven days.
• Childline, for children in need of care and protection.
• Women Helpline, for women in distress.
• 112, police and emergency response, available at all hours.
• Directorate of Social Justice, +91 471 2306040, +91 471 2302887, swdkerala@gmail.com.

For a grievance about a scheme rather than a personal emergency, the department's Public Grievance Cell, reachable through the Grievance section of sjd.kerala.gov.in, is the correct route, and the Kerala State Elderly Commission handles wider questions about the rights and treatment of senior citizens in the state.

What Elderline reports say about its work

Elderline in Kerala publishes its work rather than operating unseen. The department's Elderline page carries monthly activity reports and annual reports, including an Elderline Annual Report for 2023-24 and an annual report for 2021-22, along with monthly activity reports running from October 2021 onwards. Anyone who wants to see the scale and pattern of the cases the helpline handles; researchers, students, NGOs, panchayat members planning elderly services: can download these from the Elderline service page on sjd.kerala.gov.in.

Calling 14567 is free, and no officer of the helpline will ask a senior citizen for money, for bank details, or for an OTP. Any such demand should be reported immediately to the Directorate of Social Justice or to the police on 112.