Our turn to care for them

Ashwani Kumar Malhotra

When I retired, I got the opportunity to serve the elderly at an old-age home that provided a host of amenities and recreational activities, besides excellent healthcare facilities. Most of them were afflicted with one disease or the other. Apart from a few who were disabled and bedridden, most of them either had a heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes.

Most of them were anxious, depressive and suffered from insomnia and loneliness, as in the sunset years of their lives, they were left to fend for themselves. Their children were settled elsewhere, or after the loss of a spouse, they had nowhere else to go.

When I asked a 75-year-old woman whose husband had died in an accident some years ago, and whose only son was settled in the US, why she didn’t go and stay with him and his wife, she was reluctant to share her woes. But she admitted that she had stayed with them for a few months and was reduced to working like a servant, more or less, since they didn’t have any household help.

In the face of reports of physical and psychological abuse, neglect and abandonment, and having battled the Covid-19 pandemic along with their comorbidities with trepidation, they displayed a rare resilience.

In my interactions with them, most of them had accepted and learned to live with their diseases and physical deformities. They could often be seen walking with a limp or a stick with great difficulty, yet they carried on with grit and determination and continued to lead a spirited life with dignity. It accorded them with hope, freedom and respect.

Geriatric healthcare is still in a nascent stage in our country and not many are aware of their rights to healthcare, security, safety, food, clothing, housing and their right to live with dignity, as promulgated in the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act of 2007.

I was delighted to watch these elders hoot and shout, clap their hands in glee like children and shake a leg, gorging on sweetmeats and other delicacies to their heart’s content at a social do! And once they got going, one could not help but marvel at their spirit.

The world is greying at a rapid pace. The elderly constitute 10-12 per cent of the population, which is expected to double by 2050, as projected by the World Health Organisation.

As we celebrate the International Day of Older Persons today, let us embrace their needs and address their insecurities with love, compassion and care.

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