Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Senior citizens

This refers to the article “Are senior citizens treated well by society?” (Open Page, March 30). It is difficult for people to handle the transition from active life to retirement all of a sudden. Retirement does not necessarily mean that one has lost the capability of pursuing a career. As long as one feels physically and mentally fit, he or she can continue to remain active. In fact, in many professions, the elderly are sought after for consultation. They form the vital support group in this age of high attrition and poaching of employees within industry.

Society also should take responsibility to make life easier for the elders. Heavy, chaotic traffic, combined with indisciplined parking, is injurious to them. There are not enough safe road crossings. High footboards in public transport are also a problem. Lower footboards may be a hindrance while negotiating turns and speed-breakers but our designers can surely come out with retractable footboards in buses.

My request to the seniors: please don’t forget how difficult it was for you to spare time for others when you were pursuing your careers.

Nirmala Narayanan,

Bangalore

The article speaks only of the retirees who were lucky to work in the organised sector. They constitute a very small percentage of senior citizens. Besides benefits such as the provident fund, gratuity, periodical revision of pension and post-retirement medical facilities, they get other concessions such as higher income tax limits and reduced railway fares. Look at the vast majority of the elderly. The retirees have no reason to grumble.

M.M. Pillaichitra,

Ernakulum

Our society is changing fast and there is no way it can be stopped as new values, not necessarily good and enduring, overtake the traditional ones. There was a generation which considered even distant relatives part of “our family.” Later the term shrunk to represent only up to grandparents. Thanks to frequent dislocation of families due to transfers, etc., “our family” became “my family” consisting of husband, wife and children. More often, this was due to the senior citizens’ inability to adjust to a different lifestyle.

The most unwelcome development in recent times, however, is “my family” being replaced by “my life” where only the individual matters. In this fast changing scenario, senior citizens have no place and it is difficult to attribute a single reason for this. The main reason is, of course, the new culture of both spouses working for a living.

S. Rajagopalan,

Chennai The term ‘senior citizen’ is a usage borrowed from America, where persons crossing 65 enter another phase of citizenship with social security. Here, they suffer differently in grade and degree. Let us call them elders, thus inspiring respect, sympathy and decent treatment.

N. Dharmeshwaran,

Chennai

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