"Two things we need are an area-wise registry of all the senior citizens, and a re-launch of the ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ session that was started in 2004,” said Lalrokhuma Pachuau, Director General and Inspector General of Police, on the eve of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which was observed on Thursday.
Launching a nationwide report on ‘Elder Abuse in India’ compiled by HelpAge India, he said, “Any kind of physical assault on elderly persons is prohibited by the law of the land and it will be a criminal offence.”
Vice-president of Federation of Senior Citizen Forums of Karnataka Indira Jaiprakash said, “For every one case of elder abuse reported in Karnataka, six are going unreported. We need support from the police.”
Pachuau said, “If unfair treatment is meted to elderly people, it must be brought to the notice of the police. With increasing life expectancies in our country, there is more onus on us to give our elders a lot of care and security.”
Robert Dequadros, Senior Manager, Help Age India, Bangalore, said ‘senior citizen identity cards’ must be issued to the elderly so that there can be a database of all their details.
“We must have an area-wise database of all the details of the senior citizens residing there. This will help the police keep track of their well-being,” said Pachuau, requesting the HelpAge India to help generate one such database for the city.