City most unsafe in the country for senior citizens

The Mumbai police have initiated many programmes for the safety and security of senior citizens, however, the city ranks first in highest crime against senior citizens across all the metropolitan cities in the country.

According to the statistics released by National Crime Records Bureau, Mumbai alone contributes 34.2 per cent of the crime. Mumbai ranked first with a total of 1,218 incidents reported in 2016 closely followed by Delhi and Ahmedabad with 642 and 362 incidents respectively.

The crime against senior citizens have been on a rise for the past three years. In 2016, nine senior citizens were hacked to death in the city while over 100 citizens were grievously hurt due to assault.

The Mumbai police had also launched a dedicated helpline — 1090. After launching the helpline, the late R.R. Patil, during his tenure as the Home Minister, had started the initiative under which police officials regularly meet the elderly living alone.

"Our policemen do visit residences of senior citizen and directions have been given to all the police stations in this regard," said senior IPS officer.