71% of senior citizens in Chennai face abuse

CHENNAI: Chennai holds the dubious distinction of topping the list of country’s metros on ‘elderly abuse’, with 71 per cent of senior citizens interviewed for a survey reporting disrespectful behaviour in various forms.

The recent national-level survey by an NGO working for elderly people showed that Bhopal was exactly on par with Chennai in the table.

The HelpAge India survey said 68.4 per cent of elderly couples in Chennai felt that families neglected them, and 33 per cent were living separately even though their children lived in the same city. “The couples were living alone as their children did not want parental interference in their life,” Indrani Rajadurai, special adviser of Help­Age India, said on Monday.

The survey also revealed that 63.3 per cent of the elderly were financially dependent on their families and 26.3 per cent of the elderly were engaged in small economic activities like sewing, making ropes or agarbati and weaving baskets to feed themselves, Rajadurai told Exp­ress at the sidelines of an awareness programme on prevention of elde­rly abuse, organised at the Chennai Pol­ice Commissioner’s Office.

She attributed this trend to changing socioeconomic factors like large-scale migration to urban areas for livelihood, and career-oriented youngsters moving aboard.

To end to this trend, HelpAge India has identified 100 ‘Prev­ent Elder Abuse Champions’ in the corporate sector, including IT firms.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Shakeel Akhter, ACP (Law and Order), warned people against abandoning their parents. “We have instructed all police stations that they should, on complaints, warn the children and keep them in observation. Repetition of the offence would lead to their arrest under section 24 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act.”