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Senior citizens need care, not money
J. EDEN ALEXANDER
The article “Post-retirement years could be more productive” (Open Page, April 20) was quite optimistic about the life of senior citizens in that its author went to the extent of throwing the lot of these old creatures entirely to the love and care of god.
I have abundant faith in god. But let us remember that god expects every one to do his duty. Senior citizens deserve sympathy not because they do not have enough money to spend or on account of their failure to plan for the future.
Two vital factors
But most of them need distinctive care and concern on two vital factors where they are really helpless. The first is their inevitable failing health and the other is the conspicuous absence of assistance from their loved ones (son or daughter) at a time when they need their help most. With such basic downsides, their very life has become meaningless today.
I happened to see an old man one day with his staggering legs crossing the main road at the busiest part of the day. He was about to be run over by a speeding two-wheeler. After leading him safely to the edge of the road, I came to know that he was a retired Central government officer living with his sickly wife close by. He had to come to the bazaar to buy a pack of bread as his servant maid failed to turn up for work that day.
He made it absolutely clear that ‘money is not everything in life’ when he said in his trembling voice choked with emotion and frustration: “What to do sir? We are only two at home. We have every thing. We have our own house. Our son and daughter live abroad and send money regularly; but no use. We are left alone in this world at this age. What we need today is care, concern and help and not money.”
His problems were identical with those of many other senior citizens. A senior citizen even in his 70s is forced to take his or her turn at the queue, however long it might be, in a bank or post office or at the reservation counter.
A senior citizen is an easy target of attack by robbers and mischief-makers. We have cases of senior citizens being killed for money by people well known to them. It is unsafe to depend on an outsider even for a small help like withdrawal of money from the bank.
When both become aged and sickly, who will take them to the hospital in an emergency? Our police have not started doing such a social service as they do in the West.
Retirement, of course, provides ample time to spend on hobbies like writing, as contemplated by the author, but only when peace of mind is guaranteed.
The sudden boom in employment opportunities, particularly in the IT sector, has caused huge exodus of our children in search of jobs, both within and outside the country. The innocent but ambitious parents never knew that they would be left alone on a rainy day with their dear ones totally incapable of helping them in an emergency.
Ineffective and useless
Can we call this situation as the upshot of modernisation or the curse of our own conscious rejection of the age-old joint family system? It remains a fact that these old unlucky elders do live at the mercy of others while their own children live at a distant place. Their children may be full of love, affection and concern for their parents. But their love is ineffective and useless.
These rich parents are poor in their spirits as they starve for help. What they need is trustworthy support when they become too old to survive alone in this world.
It is time for us to find ways of making the life of every senior citizen better and safer (in his or her own home and not in old age homes) instead of transferring the responsibility to god.
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