The historical genesis of U3A is quite long and chequered. It all began in France in 1960 through a parliamentary sanction. The basic idea was to make the senior citizens strive for better quality of life (QOL) through further learning, enhancing their knowledge and in turn impart that knowledge for the benefit of the subsequent generations.

The movement caught the imagination of most of the developed countries and by the grace of United Nations an International Institute on Aging was established at Malta, and was inaugurated by the UN Secretary General himself in 1980.

However, in the Indian Context the U3A movement in its Allahabad meeting on 28th and 29th of March, 2008 where the Indian Association of Universities of Third Age (IAUTA) has been established and adopted with a proper constitution, membership rules and administrative structure. Under this institution there are 6 zones, each zone having zonal chairperson and a corresponding regional councils. Dr. Indrani Chakravarty, Director, Calcutta Metropolitan Instittute of Gerontology (CMIG) has been elected as the Eastern Zonal Chairperson.

The central essence of U3A is to teach and learn. There are number of activities CMIG does perform in a regular basis. But it is also true that to make U3A movement successful we need to render excellent and yeomen services for the aged population in the country.

Our future plan is to build a lasting network where the designated members of the organizations can exchange views, propose programmes or seek the help of the other organizations wherever they feel the necessity.

The second important task is to create a computerized database of all the enlisted zonal organization for proper coordination of the movement. In this context we may mention that the Action Plan & Registration Form will soon be appended.

We list below the objectives framed by IAUTA : -

• To make aware the older people about their intellectual cultural and aesthetic potentials.
• To create facilities for learning skills in desired interest.
• To develop personnel for care giving, managing day care centers, old age homes, geriatric centers etc.
• To develop volunteers / personnel for training elders how to better maintain their well being and independence.
• To undertake researches on ageing and allied fields.
• To utilize elderly for creating awareness, get themselves involved in social work and promote education for adults in urban and rural society.
• To educate and develop volunteers to assist the society to face the challenges of aging and its implications in 21st century.
• To train doctors, nurses, social workers with specific knowledge for dealing with older people.