K. Radhakrishnan joined Dignity Foundation, an organisation for the elderly, and has since found ways to help men and women over 60 years of age find outlets for their latent capabilities. In this interview, he tells R. Sujatha of the several schemes he has mooted.

In 2001, when Dignity Foundation’s Chennai chapter was started with 60 life members, it aimed at ensuring that retired people had a forum to air their opinions and help others like them in distress.

Today, the Foundation has over 600 members and has helped spread awareness about the need to cherish and respect elders, says the Foundation’s Chennai chapter director Radhakrishnan.

The Foundation has several life enrichment services, including a helpline which monitors calls about elder abuse at home. “Normally abuses begin when the parents become physically dependant on their children. The elders put up with harassment for six months before they decide to call us,” he says.

He has brought in his rich experience as an employee in a multinational company for 38 years.

Sometime ago, the Foundation helped an 85-year-old woman, who was held to ransom by her son-in-law. “We took the help of the police when the woman’s son came to visit her.” In just a matter of hours, she was flown out of the city to live with her son, he recalls.

“The abuse can range from locking up parents in a room, not allowing them to watch television to harassing parents for their property.” The Foundation has a panel of advisors, social workers and volunteers to deal with such issues. “We don’t have a legal authority but use our social workers to solve their problem,” he says.

But the Foundation intervenes when members hear of physical abuse.

Through the week, he attends to complaints, helps senior citizens find a job, provides avenues for them to meet up, finds volunteers to teach them to use the computer and teaches schoolchildren to cherish their parents and grandparents. The elders can approach the Foundation’s office on Halls Road, where volunteers from information technology companies teach them to send and receive e-mails. The Foundation offers companionship service for lonely senior citizens.

That many companies recall retirees to work as consultants is a sign that companies always want to draw on the experience and talent of the elders, he says. Though jobs such as managers for housing societies are fewer in Chennai the trend is changing, he says.

Among his plans is a dementia day care centre so that the estimated one lakh people with dementia can be cared for. “We have not got a suitable place. We are seeking people’s help.”

He also wants to take up the issue of autorickshaw drivers fleecing elders.

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