Speedy implementation of policy on senior citizens demanded

Senior citizens today demanded speedy implementation of over 10-year-old national policy that envisages a slew of measures for financial security, health care, shelter, welfare and other needs of the elderly.

The 1999 National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) seeks to provide protection against abuse and exploitation, make available opportunities for development of the potential of older persons by enlisting their participation and providing services to improve their quality of life.

Wearing black badges, senior citizens held protest at Azad Maidan over non-implementation of NPOP, and enacted plays to highligh their demands. They also expressed their unhappiness over tardy pace of other government initiatives like Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, 2007.

SP Kinjawdekar, president, All India Senior Citizens Confederation (AISSCON), said that a few representatives met Maharashtra minister of state for social justice Sachin Ahir with their demands. "Ahir agreed to most of our demands except those related to financial benefits on which the Centre had to take a decision."

Not a single state or Union Territory (UT) has adopted the NPOP document even after 11 years of its promulgation by the Centre let alone its implementation, Kinjawdekar said.

To highlight their demands, senior citizens in the country observed August 16 as National Protest Day.

According to NGO HelpAge, 66% of the senior citizens in the country can not afford two square meals a day, 90% of them have no social or health security, 73% are illiterate and can only survive by doing physical labour and 37% are lonely.

P Vyasamoorthy, joint coordinator for the Protest Day, said, "India signed the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing in 2002 when it committed to halve the old age poverty by 2015, but the reverse is happening in our country."

According to another estimate, while the population of BPL (Below Poverty Line) category has gone down below 22%, that in case of the older persons has exceeded 66%.

This segment thus is becoming larger and larger, and at the same time getting poorer and poorer. The poorest among the poor are senior citizens, he said.

All our governments - at the Centre and in states -have been consistently ignoring and neglecting the welfare of senior citizens, Vyasamoorthy said.