GROWING OLD IS NO CRIME

The plight of the aged today is pathetic. As we move across the country we find a large number of aged people who are left to fend for themselves. Totally neglected and devoid of health as well as wealth they lead a miserable life with no one to take care of them. No one lends a helping hand. Even if they have wealth it puts them in a quandary as it is their wealth people are after.

Take for instance the story of Kanaka, a great grand mother. Kanaka was born in the year 1902. She had seen two world wars roll by. She had dutifully cared for her family in her younger and middle years. Life was difficult in those days of penury and upheaval. India was subjected to brutalities by the colonial power. Kanaka saw her countrymen unite and throw out the British. She saw partition and the relentless and yet thoughtless massacre that ensued. She never had a job. Naturally she is not eligible for any kind of pension from anywhere. She has outlived her sons. Her daughter is alive and Nimi, her great grand daughter looks after her along with her own mother. But what can a single woman do burdened as she is with her own family.

Recently Kanaka had a fall from her bed while asleep. It broke her hips. Nimi took her to the finest orthopedic surgeon in town. Assessing the damage the surgeon suggested surgery to set right the damage and explained that the surgery would cost Rs.60, 000.00. Aghast Nimi told the surgeon that she has no means to raise the amount and opted to take the old lady home. She had no answer to the Surgeon’s poser on what she was going to do with such a patient at home. But what can Nimmi do except pass the sentence of death on her great grand mother and wait stoically for the arrival of Yama?

Nimmi at least had the sense to take Kanaka home and look after her till her last breath. But what happened to Mahalingam would haunt us for ever. Mahalingam was a school teacher. Seethalakshmi, his wife was not employed. They brought up Chandrasekaran with high expectations. Chandra was exceptionally brilliant. There were no siblings as the parents had adopted the single child norm. Educated in premier institutions Chandra was a high achiever. He went on to study further in an American University. Just as he took his doctorate, he was absorbed by a top corporate in the States with a package that was the envy of his peers.

Mahalingam had retired by now. He and Seethalakshmi were leading a quiet life. They were happy at the achievements of their son. It was a jolt to Seethalakshmi when Mahalingam suffered a stroke. He was paralysed. Soon the condition worsened and Mahalingam lay in a semi-comatose state. The doctors had gracefully given one more week for the patient. Though Chandra was a very busy official who could not afford to stay away from the job, the corporation allowed him to go on leave for a month. Chandra came home to look after his ailing father. Seethalakshmi was much relieved. A week passed. Soon it was the third week. Mahalingam refused to fade away. Though unconscious and fed by tubes the proximity of his son must have kept him alive. Chandra was in a dilemma. He felt that Mahalingam would linger on and he would have to go back without performing the last rites for his father. It was a difficult decision yet very cruel. Without the knowledge of anyone Chandra blocked the tubes for a while. Devoid of the support system Mahalingam passed away. Chandra performed the last rites and barely managed to retain his job. Seethalakshmi was left alone in the big house.

It was retirement from the job for Idiculla at the age of fifty eight. He took the family to his native village and settled there. As a young boy in search of greener pastures he had left the village when he was eighteen. He could not fathom the transformation at the village in the past forty years. He wanted time to stand still and was longing for the past. The adjustment was a difficult process.

Idiculla had traveled far and wide. He had worked at different places. Though he had a decent job, whatever he had earned went towards the bringing up of his children. At the time of his retirement none of the five were employed. Three of them were still at college. He did not even have a good house to stay. The family had to stay in a shack. He drew no pension. Soon after retirement, his wife, Rahel fell terminally ill. Whatever was left of his retirement benefits and more was spent for the treatment. Leaving the entire family in grief and in debt Rahel passed away. Had Rahel fallen ill before the retirement Idiculla’s employer would have met a substantial part of the expenses for the treatment. As Idiculla was no longer an employee he was ineligible for any assistance from anywhere.

Fortunately Rajan, one of his sons found employment and the family depended on the limited income for survival. Idiculla in the meantime fell ill. He required hospitalization and surgical intervention. Rajan managed to look after his father and nursed him back to health. Idiculla is now ninety two. He has no income. Today he requires a good sum for his medicines and treatment. Fortunately all his children are now employed and they look after him well.

Perhaps what has been narrated might have happened somewhere in our country of one billion plus. Perhaps not. There are several Kanakas, Mahalingams and Idicullas who linger on among our midst. What are we doing for them? They have lived their life well. They have partaken in nation building at their prime. Are we throwing them to the wolves? Haven’t we heard stories where the aged are pushed in front of speeding trains and vehicles as their kith and kin do not wish to look after them?

In the past life expectancy was short. It has slowly risen from the age of forty to fifty, fifty to sixty, sixty to seventy and now seventy to even ninety and beyond. Life expectancy has gone up consistently. People do not die from poverty or epidemics or even malnutrition any more. Improvement of facilities in general has improved the general health of the populace.

We have enshrined in our constitution universal suffrage. Successive legislations have ensured free education to our children. The initiatives by the Government have arrested the birth rate. A series of welfare measures have succeeded in curbing the death rate. Geriatric care assumes significance in the wake of rising population of the aged. Today we have old age homes where a minuscule segment of the elderly is taken care of depending on their propensity to pay. But are the elderly to be discarded in such homes. They too have self respect. They too have rights. But a materialistic world shuts its eyes and refuses to even recognize that they exist. Where are our values?

It is only logical that as the Government has brought in measures to improve life expectancy to such dizzy levels the Government effectively addresses the predicament the aged are faced with such as loneliness, inadequate medical care and above all insufficient income to sustain them in their old age. The aged beyond seventy needs special care. They have to be placed under a social security net. Medical care has to be free for them from all government and private hospitals. Hospitals or Doctors who extort money from them in any form should have their licenses cancelled or barred. Just as we have fundamental rights we have to establish that the elders too have fundamental rights. Our constitution needs amendment through which a minimum pension of Rs.4000.00 is available to every citizen beyond seventy so that our elders do not have to beg or look to others for financial support as they grow in age.

Looking after the aged may sound unfashionable and seem an unnecessary drain on the exchequer to most. However the resources for the massive welfare initiative need not emanate from the Government in these days of globalization and profitability. The Government is of the people for the people by the people. Living up to the ripe old age of seventy and beyond is not a crime. The elders have brought us up to what we are and where we are. None of us would have been alive but for them. Society cannot just wish them away. The people have to look after the aged and the infirm and not look at them as non performing assets. We have the road cess, educational cess, profession tax, VAT and so many such impediments in our life to slow us down. One more is not going to harm us at all. But it will make a world of difference to the lives of the aged. It will put a smile on their faces. We have to look after them. We have to fight for their cause. Their right for existence is as good as ours. Ignore them at our own peril. For today’s young are tomorrow’s aged.
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