The growing vulnerability of the elderly is evident from National Crime Record Bureau's recent move to tabulate data on crimes against senior citizens, beginning from 2014. Predictably, big cities have been found to be the most unsafe for them, with Delhi topping the list.
On the eve of the 25th International Day of Older Persons, we woke up to the news of a nonagenarian war veteran hit by a bureaucrat's car, and left to her own means. The unfortunate incident has managed to grab headlines, and rightly so, inspiring conversations around Fauj Vs Babudom (in keeping with the spirit of the recently-concluded OROP agitation) - the pervasive VIP syndrome, bad traffic manners, apathy towards everything beyond one's doorstep, and, above all, the increasing lack of concern for the elderly in our society.
In a country where "family values" are paramount, it is unfortunate to see the predicament of older people all around us. The growing vulnerability of the elderly is evident from National Crime Record Bureau's (NCRB) recent move to tabulate data on crimes against senior citizens, beginning from 2014. Predictably, big cities have been found to be the most unsafe for them, with Delhi topping the list.
Figures of robbery, murder, rape and cheating cases from across the country in this category point towards a dangerous psycho-social trend. In a Darwinian way, we are getting impatient with the vulnerable sections of the society. We do not need anything or anybody past their utility.
Indian polity and governance have largely been gerontocratic in nature with elders ruling the roost. Yet, ill-treatment, disenfranchisement and abandonment of senior citizens on a daily basis are growing in magnitude at the social level. While the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 legally binds children and relatives to take care of parents and older family members, senior citizens, particularly in rural and urban poor communities, are often not even aware of their legal rights. Sometimes, they do not take legal recourse out of fear or shame.
The debate on superstructure related issues like moral denigration of society, collapse of family as an institution, etc. can evidently rage fierce. We need to focus on infrastructural deliverables for the welfare of senior citizens. The first step towards it is financial security: for both rich and poor senior citizens. Human avarice knows no limits, but law can certainly keep it under leash.
For affluent senior citizens, safety and control of wealth and property from unscrupulous children and relatives must be ensured. Police and other related agencies should be sensitive enough towards the special needs of the elderly who may or may not be even mobile. In many ways, issues pertaining to children and senior citizens need to be tackled with similar level of sensitivity and patience. The tendency to dismiss the demands of the elderly as mere whims needs to be checked both at social and institutional levels. For financially-dependent old people, central and state government pension and welfare schemes need to be implemented sans corruption and red-tape at all the tiers of operation.
As far as social and emotional security goes, the time is ripe to discuss the desirability of a community living for the elderly. In a family, the concerns, interests, lifestyles and needs of the young and the old may not overlap, and therefore obligatory sharing of space should not be the de facto arrangement.
While the family elders may ease the burden of a working couple by taking care of the children at home, it may not be their preferred chore. Similarly, presence of elderly parents in need of constant attention may limit the professional growth of the working population. It is vital, thus, to render the old age homes free of social stigma.
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