The average life expectancy in India was 31 years at the time of independence. The country was ‘backward’ with poor nutrition and public health services. Thanks to the steps taken by successive governments, an average person now lives for a little over 70 years. Naturally, there are several aged persons now facing multiple problems.
The joint family system, where three or more generations lived together, used to offer protection to the elderly. It ensured that widows and widowers did not feel lonely and dejected. Unfortunately, this system is fast vanishing, leaving the elderly to turn to God for company. With technology providing several devices that have become indispensable to youngsters, one cannot always expect their company. They wish to live independently, particularly in urban areas where housing is expensive.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
‘Senior citizens’ with sound health and financial condition are lucky. For them, it is a long-awaited time to fulfil their remaining desires. Their children vie with one another to keep them. That is not the case with the poor or chronically ill requiring expensive medical care. Even if the children are not financially well-off, they are supposed to look after their parents to ward off the social stigma. Many a time they are forced to divide the parents among themselves. While the father lives with one son, the mother lives with another. Some of them are required to move from one offspring to another at the end of a given period. In several cases, they are dumped in old-age homes. No wonder suicides among the elderly are rising alarmingly.
Though there is a saying that wisdom comes with age, the aged people often create problems for themselves. Despite the vast number of ‘do’s and ‘dont’s’ that come their way from different sources, many have a misconception about their wisdom and offer unsolicited advice to all around them.
Some are sore that important decisions are taken without consulting them. Many parents, trusting that they would be taken care of by their children, give away the savings of their lifetime. By the time they realise their mistake, it is too late.
Some needs of the aged like concessions in the payment of income tax, separate lines in some offices dealing with the public, conditional home service by banks, construction of ramps in buildings, keeping public offices on the ground floor, and maintaining special toilets at petrol pumps are taken care of by the government.
As online banking has become the new normal, it is easy for the unwary to become victims of cybercrimes. Some banks require elderly customers who want to begin online transactions to convince them of their capability to do so. Some carriers like the railways or airlines offer a concessional rate of tickets to them. During elections they are a pampered lot, as their votes have the same value as those of other age groups. Political parties vie with one another to take them to the polling booths, though all may not be taken back to their homes after voting.
It is a general opinion that much more needs to be done to protect elderly persons.
