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Their evening is not bleak
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With the breakdown of the joint family system, an increasing number of senior citizens are finding themselves alone in their twilight years. But several NGOs and hospitals offer a range of services for the city's elders in their hour of need.
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SOCIETY ATTACHES great value to some objects when they age. A fine piece of artwork or sculpture earns appreciation and gains many times its intrinsic value with the passage of years. The connoisseurs of liquor will raise their hats to a fine glass of drink from an old cask kept in a cellar for years. But ageing is not a welcome process in Homo Sapiens. The treatment meted out to the aged is not what they deserve and is nowhere near what those inanimate things mentioned above get.
In the traditional joint family system, elders were taken care of, and, in turn, contributed by looking after the grandchildren and acting in the best interests of the family. This order is changing leading to the establishment of a number of old age homes. Migration due to job opportunities, economic conditions and as has happened in many cases, sheer lack of love on the part of the younger generation are the reasons why senior citizens are forced to fend for themselves.
Girija Subash runs a home for the aged, with around 15 inmates, near Dr. Natesan Park, T. Nagar. Most of them moved in there permanently when their children took up jobs abroad and they began to find it difficult to manage the daily household chores. The elders at Girija's home get medical attention immediately in case of any ailment. A permanent staff nurse checks their blood pressure and other parameters daily. Girija says that dignity is what the elders look for from society. The impoverished among elder citizens suffer from poor health but cannot afford treatment. The yeoman service of V.S. Natarajan who was instrumental in creating a separate geriatric wing and streamlining the treatment for these people at the Chennai General Hospital, deserves special mention as many senior citizens cannot afford the cost of medicare. The social workers at the hospital counsel the patients and help them manage their problems. The doctors treat them and they are provided medicines free of cost. From a mere outpatient department in 1978, the geriatric wing developed into a 20-bed ward in 1985. Later, it was equipped with a surgical wing. Ellapan, a rickshaw man in the Panagal Park area for the last 40 years, said he had sold his rickshaw for two reasons — age and because of the fish carts that have come to dominate the scene. As his income dwindled drastically, he took up a job as a night watchman in an apartment complex but was finding it difficult to make ends meet.
A recent study has revealed that in Chennai and other metros, nearly 52 per cent of senior citizens do not have income to sustain themselves. Here, NGOs have stepped in to help them overcome the mental stress caused by money problems.
"They suffer from mental agony caused by their poor financial conditions. They languish when they can not even buy medicine when they fall sick," says Indrani Rajadurai, joint director, southern region, HelpAge IndiaThe day care centres run by HelpAge ensure that senior citizens are not entirely cut off from their families. The beneficiaries are served a balanced meal and are free to socialise with others who come there. They are given an opportunity to earn pocket money by doing light work such as envelope making. The centres offer the facility of medical check-ups. HelpAge has four such centres in Chennai, as well as mobile medicare units that visit the slums everyday to help senior citizens who are too weak to go to hospitals.
M.S. RAJAGOPAL
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