20/march /2014
A note on Important aspects of the International conference on “Elder Dignity and Abuse” prepared by Dr. Sugan Bhatia
A note on Important aspects of the International conference on “Elder Dignity and Abuse” prepared by Dr. Sugan Bhatia
I
wish to commend the very meaningful efforts of Dr. Jacob John Kattakayam,
Dr. PKB Nayar and their very efficient and committed
colleagues at the Centre for Gerontological Studies at Thiruvananthpuram for organizing a
highly stimulating International
Conference on Elder Dignity and Abuse on March 14-16, 2014. I am
sharing this e-mail with you also in the belief that some of our colleagues in
AISCCON – Shri DN Chapke, Shri Sugan Bhatia, Shri Haneefa Rawther, Shri
Vyasamoorthy, and many friends from Thiruvananthpuram Senior Citizens’ movement
– were part of this International Conference.
Dr.
Jacob John Kattakayam and Dr. PKB Nayar have earned gratitude of many scholars
and activists by combining, for the first time in India, the concerns of Elder
Dignity and Elder Abuse as the theme of the International Conference thus
giving an opportunity to participants to place elders in a positivist framework
while discussing the challenges that they face in their lives. I believe that
the sponsors have earned equal degree of commendation for supporting such a thoughtful
combination of concerns in the International Conference. Both the Kerala
Government and the UNFPA lent their support to this effort.
Dr.
Jacob John Kattakayam and Dr. PKB Nayar widened the scope of interacting
scholarship in the International Conference by bringing together many
distinguished and promising scholars from the field of Sociology, apart from
the community of scholars and activists from the field of Psychology,
Demographers, Medicine and the Senior Citizens’ movement. The concerned
community of scholars in the area of ageing appears to be growing both in India
and in the Asian region. The delegates from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and
Afghanistan brought in their cultural perspectives to this rapidly maturing
field of scholarship. One can only hope that the active association and support
of political and development management elites will continue to influence the
policy and progamme environment both in India and in the Asian countries. The
very meaningful participation of the corporate sector – through a stimulating
paper from the Managing Director of the Malabar Cements – brought in a
much-awaited partner in the effort.
The
subject of elder dignity should receive significant support from measures that
help enhance individual
resilience to combatting any
assaults on the elderly both through psychological, and tactical efforts gained
through networking with individuals and organizations in their proximity, as
also through entitlements facilitated by governance mechanisms instituted at
the local, community, region and national efforts in each South Asian country.
Senior Citizens look forward to a period when entitlements like Health, Shelter
Pensions, and Food will be upgraded to the status of Fundamental Rights; the
Supreme Court of India support for such provisions, for example, has supported
the urgency of such an action on the part of any government in power.
Elder
Dignity should also receive conscious effort at the level of the Family to create an enabling environment for
senior citizens to live in such environments with their existence duly
recognized. The essential steps to such support should be seen in terms of
measures that help enhanceself-esteem –
e.g. active participation in family life, promoting self-dependence,
encouraging control of their own resources, generosity of the other family
members in being tolerant and patient towards their somewhat slow movements,
etc At the same time,
the elders also need to tone down the volume of complaints, if any, and
allowing other members of their families to enjoy their own lives. The family
could encourage, for example, larger networking efforts for the senior citizens
with their peer group both in family and community environments.
The
next in line of the supporting environments are a series of actions at the
level of the Institutions – e.g. Old Age Homes, Day Care
Centres, Respite Care Centres, Local Markets as friendly interacting agents
with the senior citizens, elder friendly public spaces, health and other
functionaries at the grassroots level, media, police authorities with their
commitment to community policing, corporate sector with their support to
innovative and caring projects for the senior citizens, etc.
While
the immediate and larger community should continue to create enabling and
supporting environments for the senior citizens, elderly dignity will be
enhanced, and consequently elderly abuse minimized, by pro-active engagement of
the elderly themselves through both self-guarding strategies and through active
engagement in the market in the area of financial transactions. The muted
practice of gerontocide in some communities served as an eye-opener in the
international conference. Special sensitivities need to be built in for
providing support to those segments of the elderly population particularly
among the elderly widows, differently abled and the transgender community.
It
was good to hear voices in support of larger companionship and
life-partner-search arrangements mounted by some senior citizens’ supporters.
However, an issue that needs wider debate in the country and the South Asian
region is the question of mandatory reporting of elder abuse at the individual,
family and community levels. In a cultural climate that supports largely oral
culture transactions, more so in the South Asian Community, written culture
arrangements, such as the ones represented by the Police and Law Enforcement
Authorities, could target the poorer segments and penalize them heavily; the fear
of the institution of family could be under tremendous pressure under such
environments. One should consider, instead, the rapidly emerging enabling legal
provision of Conciliation and Counselling at the family, clan and community
level to achieve the goal of reducing elder abuse.
Sugan
Bhatia
98112
25103
auther prabhakar chhatre
**************************************************************************
20/march /2014
Letter
to National Political Parties
5th March, 2014
Hon’ble Shri Rajnath Singh
President
Bharatiya Janata Party, India
Sub : Request to include Senior Citizens’ as
a Constituency
in your Political Manifesto –
Sir,
India has nearly 10 per cent
population of Senior Citizens in its more than 121 crore of total population.
All of them constitute active voters insofar as they are the most regular and
first at the post of the voting constituents at the time of any election. They
thus represent a class of voters who participate in the democratic process most
actively and diligently. Most of them are aware of the significance that
various political parties attach to the development concerns of the country in
general and of the senior citizens in particular.
All
India Senior Citizens’ Confederation
takes this opportunity to appreciate your efforts at being a very strong
advocate for the cause of the senior citizens’ movement all over the country.
We are deeply conscious of
the very meaningful role that you play
in sensitizing the community and influencing public opinion in being the voice
of senior citizens. You have promoted greater empathy in the Indian family
about the need to take all steps to facilitate inter-generational solidarity
and bonding within the family, encourage the family to strengthen practices
that facilitate ageing-in-place, and share some very meaningful roles for the
senior citizen members in their families.
All India Senior Citizens’
Confederation would like you to articulate strong commitment to the following
priority areas in the senior citizens movement in India:
(i)
integrate a “rights perspective” outlined in
Article 21 of the Constitution of India detailing the Right to Life (through
Amendment to the Constitution of India as Article 21-B) with dignity to the
challenges concerning the senior citizens along with the “welfare perspective”
outlined in Article 41 of the Constitution of India. This is
in consonance with various Supreme
Court judgements that have enunciated a rights perspective in regard to right
to health, shelter and pensions. The rights perspective is also part of our
commitment to various International Conventions, Covenants and Declarations to
which India is a signatory and hence a party to such commitments and resolve.
(ii)
promote a National Policy on Senior Citizens
and respective State level Policy on Senior Citizens in the spirit of our
Federal Constitution with the Central Policy promoting Leadership in Ideas,
Personnel and Programmes and the State Policies promoting a policy framework
unique to the population of each State and providing for all services through
liberal Central Grants and through their own resources.
(iii) strengthen the formation and growth of
senior citizens’ organizations in tribal, rural and urban areas, both for
female and male senior citizens. We believe that assumption of group identity
by senior citizens in all places helps to project their common challenges in
personal, family, community, regional and national life.
(iv) support need for physical and social
infrastructure for senior citizens in their own homes, habitats in the
community and in the local worshipping places, markets and other places that
they frequent during their daily life. They thus need home modification
practices within the family home to make the bathroom safe, the bedroom
comfortable and the dining room/family courtyard hospitable to their presence.
They want public places that they most commonly frequent age-friendly with
minimum or no barriers; they want places in public entertainment to create some
space which is a little less noisy and permitting peer group and
inter-generational dialogue. They also want Senior Citizens’ Associations and
Residents’ Welfare Association to work for their health, well-being and safety
and security.
(v) discourage dispossession, destitution and
abandonment of senior citizens in the name of religion, belief in phases of
life that lead to abandonment, or forced shelter in Old Age Homes and Senior
Citizens’ Ashrams. If the Indian Family needs support in the form of Geriatric
Education and Awareness, social protection in the form of Pensions linked to
cost-of-living with a minimum of Rs. 2,000/- per month, tax free Pension to employees in the organised sector,
facilitated diagnosis of their health problems at the Day Care Centres,
organized facilities for diagnosis and treatment of Dementia/Alzheimer’s at the
Day Care Centres, Respite Care at the Day Care Centres, full and part subsidy
in group health care insurance, enhanced concessions in taxation policies,
reverse mortgage facilities to those owning any kind of property, their
organized Associations, the Corporate Sector and the State Agencies, both in
the State Governments and the Central Government should find resources to
support such programmes. The senior citizens who face destitution and
abandonment, particularly women abandoned by their own husbands and other
family members and left alone to carry the responsibility of nurturing their
families, deserve support from the community, the corporate sector and the
various Government Agencies to provide adequate shelter and survival with
dignity facilities.
(vi) introduce universal introduction of the
National Programme of Health Care for the Elderly (NPHCE) so as to overcome the
inability of the General Health Care Programme in the public sector to take
care of the health needs of the older population. We all would like to see an
early introduction and implementation of the Home Health Care facility to
senior citizens who cannot access the local dispensary, clinic or hospital; we
also want the assisted transport support to those who are in a position to
visit such institutions.
(vii) Plan an early introduction of the National
Mental Health Prorgramme with early diagnosis of Dementia, practice of social
therapies for Dementia Care, and establishing Dementia Care facilities at the
level of the Day Care Centres, apart from the other dedicated institutions. In
fact, there is need to expand diagnosis and treatment facilities for health
challenges faced by senior citizens in the form of Mobility Deficit, Cognitive
Deficit, and Visual Deficit.
(viii) We plead with you to work for the
establishment of a National Commission for Senior Citizens at the Central level
and State Commissions for Senior Citizens at the State level as a
Constitutionally mandated grievance redressal mechanism with senior citizens as
important stakeholders both at the level of the Membership of the Commissions
and their intended beneficiaries .
(ix) We urge
you to support the speedier implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of
Parents and Senior Citizens’ Act, 2007 through measures that aim to create
wider awareness concerning the legislation and its implementation. We would
like you to demand a progress report both from the Centre and the States in
regard to the steps taken to enforce this law universally.
(x) We would like you to support the creation
of a separate Ministry of Senior Citizens both at the level of the Centre and
the States so that the legitimate aspirations of more than 12 crore senior
citizens are accorded due attention. Such mechanisms should work towards
developing a larger and more comprehensive programme base, including Day
Centres at the Municipal/Panchayat Ward level supporting education, awareness,
diagnostic health services and Respite Care programmes at that level, shelter
for the destitute and abandoned senior citizens, etc.
(xi) Pledge by senior citizens to commit
themselves, on their part, to work for a senior citizens’ movement that offers
its mentoring services to the younger segments of the Indian population to find
remunerative occupations, utilize their energies in the better implementation
of welfare laws in the country, and join in a strong and vibrant citizenship
movement in a democratic society. The organization also commits itself to more
vibrant and active participation of the senior citizens in the democratic
process; assure the country that the
senior citizens would be the first to reach the polling booths as part of their
celebration of the democratic process and as an expression of strong and
serious concern for better governance mechanisms.
We are aware that your Party has, as
part of its Political Manifesto, taken considerable interest in the rights and
welfare of various vulnerable groups of
our population in general, and of senior citizens in particular. We would like
to share the above concerns, all the same, with you in the hope that you would
accord a measure of priority to incorporating the needs of senior citizens in
your Political Manifesto:
Thanking you,
Yours truly,
D.N. Chapke, President, Navi
Mumbai (M) 09820021224
Dr. Sugan Bhatia, Senior Vice President, New Delhi (M)
09811225103;
B.B. Dixit, Vice President, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh(M)
09451937991;
Daljit Singh Grewal, Vice President, Chandigarh (M)
09855153203;
Krupasindhu Sahu, Vice President, Bhubaneswar, Odisha (M) 09437001251;
Narayan N. Ingle, Vice President, Akola, Maharashtra (M) 09822717199;
PrabhakarS. Kulkarni, Vice
President, Karnataka,(M) 09845257990) ;
Haneefa Rawther, Vice President,
Kerala (M) 09446362105;
D. Rajasekaran. Vice President, Chennai, Tamil Nadu (M)
009444368077
Dr. Mrs. Alka Vyas. Vice President, Pune, Maharashtra (M)
098502 77590
Indravadan Desai, Vice President, Gujarat (M)
093770 00066
Anil P. Kaskhedikar, Secretary General, Mumbai, Maharashtra (M)
09969128678
Om Prakash Hingar, Organizing Secretary, Rajasthan (M)
09829046901
Dr. S.P. Kinjawadekar,
Advisor, Navi Mumbai (M)
098206 39773
auther prabhakar chhatre
8
No comments:
Post a Comment