The Hindu : The curse of age

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 12, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

The curse of age

IRONICAL AS IT may sound, longevity is a blessing but age is a curse. While science consistently tries to prolong life, societies shun those very beings modern medicine helps live longer. The world over, the elderly are ignored, not given their rights and abused, even killed. Often, their special needs are overlooked. They have no access to healthcare. Planners do not include them in their policies. And, it is not exactly rare to find rich young men or women turning into old paupers and living in abject penury, their wealth or property lost or taken away through means most foul. A survey, "The State of the World's Older People 2002'', across 32 nations found these people in a miserable plight. Humiliated and unhappy, they led a degrading existence. "It is as if once you are 60 and above, you stop being treated as a human being'', said HelpAge International, which guided the enquiry.

Two States may serve as interesting examples: Japan and India. Despite being the second largest economic power, Japan's 24,000 homeless are invariably men past their prime. Once part of the elite earning circle, they have now been forgotten by a nation that they helped build brick by brick in the trying post-war era. What is even more sad is that they have been disowned by their families in a social structure where money alone endears an aged person to his friends or children. In India, the picture is bleaker. Given the level of poverty and deprivation, the old find little love or respect even within their homes. Their presence is tolerated as long as they can babysit or rustle up a meal. Once they are incapable of this, their existence is fraught with humiliation. India's old widows suffer even more in a community that can be frighteningly self-centred, pitiless and blinded by meaningless convention.

With the global number of those above 60 expected to touch two billion by 2050 — India already has 70 million of them, and this figure will be 177 million by 2025 — the problem of the aged needs to be addressed in a spirit of urgency and conviction. Their welfare must be made part of a worldwide agenda. Governments must understand that medical facilities must be streamlined in a way that they become affordable to a section whose economic strength may have diminished with advancing years. What is equally imperative is the need to involve them in the tens of jobs ideally suited for them, and administrations may resort to legislation to ensure this. The State cannot absolve itself of responsibility towards a group that was once productive. The United Nations feels that a part of Government resources must be set aside for them. India, unfortunately, is absolutely callous about the whole issue. Apart from the token concessions that they are offered in railway tickets, not much is done to alleviate their suffering. If a man has to fight, often an unequal battle, to get his retirement benefits, he finds little support or sympathy elsewhere. After all, who thinks about the hardship an elderly woman faces while she boards a bus with its first step high above the ground? Who cares about placing a handrail along a flight of difficult steps? Who thinks twice about elbowing the helpless out of the way? Does a highly paid doctor ever think of waiving his fee from someone who is bent with age and ill? Somewhere, societal concerns have changed course so sharply that the weak — the aged in particular — find themselves trampled upon and forgotten.

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