Meet to raise awareness on elders’ abuse

The seminar was organised to create awareness about the abuse inflicted by children to the elders in the family,some of which do not come forward to share their problem.

Brig. Keshav Chandra (Retd) while talking to Newsline said: “Most of the cases of elderly abuse we receive are due to financial reasons. Some of the people do not come forward with their problem for the sake of the reputation of their wards.” As many as 98 per cent of the abused elderly do not register complaints out of fear of further abuse,as per the survey.

Dr Khehra,in his speech highlighted that many of the seniors undergo self-negligence,“They should be made aware of their legal rights. The laws that were formulated 11 years ago need to be amended.”

Gurnam Singh,the coordinator of the seminar said: “Most of the the elderly in the city are facing financial abuse. These people have very well-off wards and yet some of them don’t have enough money to buy their medicines.”

All the speakers were senior citizens who talked about the problems their fellow senior citizens are facing and how to tackle them.

According to the Help Age India survey,verbal abuse is the largest in the country,particularly in Delhi,Mumbai,Hyderabad and Chennai.