Ours is the unique country where it is a sin to be elderly and alone. In no other country of the world, there is as much threat to the life of elderly people as in ours. And we boast to have inherited great culture of humanism and compassing. In particular, threat to the rich lone elderly persons is many times more than to an ordinary senior citizen. Crime against elderly is generally committed with the intention of grabbing his wealth in cash and kind. Killing the lone elderly is more rampant in the metro cities of India than in smaller towns or villages. It is organised crime.
Normally the culprits committed crimes against the elderly persons are their servants, helpers or goons who know them well. This is why the police have always impressed upon the elderly persons to get their servant registered with the police station nearest to them. The purpose is to find out about the antecedents of the servants or maids or helpers.
The basic question is why the elderly people are left unattended by their wards and closest relatives. It is a phenomenon thrown up by drastic changes that have appeared in our social set up. Joint families are giving space to nuclear families, and the elderly have to bear the brunt. Owing to economic compulsions women have to work side by side with their men folk in order to supplement family income. They leave for their work places in the morning and return in the late evening which exposes their elderly parents to the danger of being attacked but criminals.
Union Home Ministry has taken a serious view of the incidents of attacking and killing elderly people who are living a lone life especially in metro cities. It has issued advisory to all State and Union Territories to say that the measures specified therein should be taken in hand to ensure safety of the elderly persons. The local police stations are directed to maintain data base of all elderly and lone persons and update it regularly. The Police officers are advised to pay intermittent visits to the elderly people and ensure that security measures are of desired standard. The advisory says that in case of a crime against the elderly, the police officer responsible to provide security should be brought to book and dealt with as stipulated by the law.
Various measures suggested by the Home Ministry are very innovative and original and one is tempted to say that if these instructions are strictly followed by the police authorities and also the local non governmental organizations, there is much likelihood of the crime against elderly people coming down sharply. However while we appreciate the slew of measures enunciated by the Home Ministry, we do not find any mention about the wards of the old man or woman being charged with moral and legal responsibility of providing semblance of security on their home level. Why should not the family members share the responsibility and why should they abandon an elderly man in his old age. This is not acceptable from moral and ethical point of view.
It is true that under rules, if a family or a lone person engages a domestic servant, full antecedents of the servant should be entered in the records of the local police. But it has been observed that in some cases the police are lax and do not make full entries or do not check and cross check whether the entries are genuine. What happens is that when the servants are made culpable in the case of a crime, the police have not genuine record with it and the search for the culprit becomes difficult. These aspects of the crime should also be taken care. All the aspects should be kept in mind and a comprehensive policy should be developed in State for elderly people.
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