International Day of Older Persons is celebrated every year on October 1. Aimed at spreading awareness about the need for health provisions and social care for elderly, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons on 14 December 1990. This was preceded by initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, which was adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing and endorsed later that year by the UN General Assembly.
According to the United Nations report last year, elder abuse is a problem that exists in both developing and developed countries. Even though the precise degree of elder mistreatment is unknown, its social and moral significance is obvious. As such, it demands a multifaceted response, one which focuses on protecting the rights of older persons.
According to the Social Justice and Empowerment ministry, a number of schemes exist to ameliorate their living standards. It referred to National Policy on Older Persons, 1999, which envisages State support to ensure financial and food security, health care, shelter, protection and other needs of older persons to improve quality of their lives.
Under Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana, the government informed the parliament recently that the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment implements various welfare schemes for improving the living standard of senior citizens including Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC) under which grants in aid are given for running and maintenance of Senior Citizens Homes, Continuous Care Homes, Mobile Medicare Units etc. to the Implementing Agencies (IAs) such as Registered Societies/ Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) / Local bodies; Non-Governmental/Voluntary Organizations.
Apart from it, there is another scheme—Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC), Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY) under which aids and assistive living devices are provided to senior citizens belonging to BPL category or those senior citizens who earn less than 15000 per month and suffer from age related disabilities such as low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth and loco-motor disabilities. There is also a scheme by name Livelihood and Skilling Initiatives which aims to supplement the efforts of the senior citizens by providing them opportunities to enhance their earning and sense of self-respect.
While various programmes and schemes are there, implementation in an apt manner remains important.
The government is required to provide greater attention to the specific challenges affecting elders. Importantly people should address problems facing the elders on their own and treat them with respect and compassion.
