Over 50s volunteering in India
Description of Over 50s volunteering in India
We offer a wide array of tailor made trips for Over 50’s who want to go volunteering in India. Long gone are the days when volunteering holidays were all about students ‘finding themselves’ on a gap year. Volunteering projects value the life experience and skills of more mature travellers and can be from minimum one week to as long as twelve weeks.
The projects that we offer in India include teaching English, medical placements for experienced health professionals, caring for people with disabilities, women’s empowerment, volunteering with animals, marine conservation or arts volunteering. We will work with you to see what placement suits you best according to your valuable experience and life skills. Our locations for volunteering projects are the luscious and coastal state of Kerala in Southern India and also the culture capital Kolkata in East India.
We will also help you organise other travel arrangements while you are in India, ensuring that you have a trip that not only expands your heart and mind but also tick many of your travel wish boxes, in some of the most spectacular places you can visit in India. We also ensure that accommodation is comfortable and with easy access to cultural sites and activities in the region.
Daily itinerary
Your volunteering hours will be between 10AM – 4PM, with evenings free to enjoy the cultural and natural highlights of the region where you are staying. We will help coordinate this for you, and recommend some interesting local activities such as cookery classes, community yoga sessions, traditional dance shows, and visits to local markets. You will have the support of local families, social workers and educators depending on the project you are working on, all of whom have a wide array of experience in your chosen area. We also adhere to strict responsible volunteering guidelines.
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Reviews
3 Reviews of Over 50s volunteering in India
Reviewed on 02 Feb 2026 by Janet Brooks
I really enjoyed the teaching and loved being in Kochi and meeting and working with the other volunteers. Interacting with the local women in the digital skills and English classes. They were so keen to learn. Read full reviewReviewed on 21 Jan 2017 by Isobel Barnden
Being in Kerala was the first totally wonderful thing! I loved the buzz of life in and around Fort Kochi while we were working at the women's project, and equally enjoyed a beautiful short trip to the more peaceful hills and plantations around Munnar. Read full reviewReviewed on 04 Jan 2017 by Gillian Perrott
The memorable moment were the people, the children, the colours, the food, the sunsets. I missed Kerala when I got home … the colours, the gentle polite Keralan people, the beautiful friendly children, the interesting Volunteers, the warm weather, the beautiful sunsets, the food, and Gina’s lovely Keralan breakfasts and lunches at the volunteers’ house. Read full reviewResponsible Travel
Planet
We are addressing our local environment by working with local communities, local charities, local government bodies, local schools, or indigenous tribes. Our tours are carefully selected – we only partner with local tour operators that are either committed to responsible tourism themselves, are eco-friendly, or have ethical policies. Of course we have to use transport and where possible our local guides encourage walking or biking and travelling on public transport- buses, railways or tuk tuks. This can minimize our demand for special tourist vehicles and fuel whilst giving you plenty of opportunity to meet and interact with local people/communities.Our operations are also eco- friendly as we introduce policies of minimising and properly disposing of waste created, conserving energy and water, and by ensuring that endangered wildlife and environmentally compromised areas are treated with respect.
On our health, construction and women’s empowerment programs we focus on environmental development projects such as recycling, gardening and planting trees.
Our independent travel options and small group sizes help us to tread lightly and to use more environmentally sound forms of transport, minimizing impact, and ideally enriching the environment.
We will offer traveller’s tips on how to conserve water, reduce waste, and otherwise minimize the environmental impact of their trip. We hope that our travellers will be able to take some of the conservation tips they learn home with them.
Wherever possible, our employees use recycled paper and recycle waste created in the office, as well as attempting to minimise waste created and be a “paperless” office. We also work to minimise energy and water consumption in our offices, and we encourage our partners to follow similar waste management and energy philosophies.
People
Volunteer support makes a big difference on this project, as you will support children who come from disadvantaged families. Many children attending the school have parents who are not educated and need help in learning, and revising subjects. By developing their English skills, and teaching children new skills through extra-curricular activities, it will help in their overall development and confidence.The schools lack teaching resources and the teachers also need a lot of support from volunteers. They have classes that are too large and hence disruptive. You will help in student monitoring and management and also helping to train teachers with new teaching methods or building teaching aids for a particular class if you possess the relevant qualifications. We screen all applicants for relevant skills/certificates so for example you have TEFL qualified teachers helping with the teacher training and trained medics helping with health care.
In your time off, we use local adventure tour companies to offer you options. The local guides they use: drivers, chefs and others involved all earn income through bookings. We also arrange your stay in local homestays which is a source of income for local families. You will be eating home cooked food and all your food will be sourced from local markets and local areas. You will be taking cooking classes and also attending a cultural dance show to give you a true flavour of life on ground and in turn you will be supporting all those involved.
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