A two-day national seminar focusing on the topic of ‘Old Age Care and Welfare’ took place
at Don Bosco College, Panjim. Day one of the seminar witnessed interactive
sessions such as Anjali Deshpande Chairmen, AJ Foundation Pune, Maharashtra
speaking on the topic of ‘Health Issues and Challenges of Elderly and Promoting
Healthy Aging’, Jyoti Ratnaparkhi, Hospice Care Foundation USA giving a
presentation on the topic of ‘Lifestyles, wellbeing and care issues of the
Elderly’. Both these sessions were moderated by Aparna Porob Palyekar.
Post lunch,
Dattaprasad Pawaskar Manager, Help Age India, Goa Branch delivered a session
talking about which are the various ‘Social Prorammes for Elderly.’ In his
speech he spoke about the social organisation, ‘Help Age India’ and how it is
creating a positive change in the society. Help Age India with the help of its
helpline number 18001801253 addresses distress calls. He also mentioned about
an app called ‘SOS’ application, which stands for Save Our Seniors.
This was followed by
a paper presentation session from students of different colleges on the
national seminar topic.
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The last presentation
of the day was by Adv. Albertina Almeida, Human Right Activist, Goa, this was
followed by a small cultural program put up by the social work department’s
students that kept the audience entertained.
Day two of the
national seminar opened with the session of Dr Shaila D’Souza Head, Department
of Women’s Study, who gave a powerful speech on the topic ‘Contemporary Issues
of Elderly Widow Women and way forward.’ After tea-break, there was a street
play performance by students of CSIBER college of Kolhapur. They highlighted
the topic of social problems faced by elderly and young women as well as men.
This was followed by Poster presentation by the participating colleges that
were assessed by Dr Cedric Silveira, Principal, DonBosco College Panaji Goa.
As the day
progressed, Dr Fr Fredrick Rodrigues, Vice-Principal, Fr Angel College of Arts
and Commerce, Pilar addressed the audience on a very interesting topic of
‘Welfare Schemes and Programmes for Elderly in India’.
The
final session of day two of the National Seminar was delivered by Siddhi Shet
Mashelkar, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Government
College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Quepem, who presented on the topic ‘Age
Friendly Community and Role of Local Governance to uplift Senior Citizens in
Rural Area’.
