I am indeed delighted to be here and interact with the members of the Helpage India community. I congratulate all those associated with the Helpage India, who are engaged in looking after the welfare of elderly persons and providing them a homely atmosphere for their stay. While I was thinking about the senior citizens in our society, I felt that there is a need to facilitate their effective participation in societal tasks. I would like to share some thoughts on how active ageing makes a difference to the individual as well as the whole society.

Traditional Indian family system

Joint family system with four generation people staying together is our traditional heritage. Nucleus family system is a new phenomenon emerging in our society. In a nucleus family atmosphere, if there is a problem, it becomes a tragedy and takes a long time to recover. Whereas in a joint family, if a member encounters a problem, the people of different generations with different perceptions and experience, work together to provide instant support which dissolves the problem immediately. I have myself experienced this in my family. When my father was 103, at times he used to encounter some health problem. It used to be a great sight to see the problem being tackled by other family members. Sons, daughters, grandchildren and great grand children work together to solve the problem in their own way. The sincerity and concern with which they work, used to provide an emotional healing for my father's temporary indisposition. Within minutes he used to back on his feet. I am very sure that our younger generation would definitely love to preserve this cultural heritage and the social organization should become partners.

Strengthening the inter-generation bond

Recently I visited Sivananda Ashram near Kanchipuram which houses orphans and senior citizens in the same campus. Children there go through a formal education in schools and vocational training in the campus. When they come back after attending the classes, they desperately need someone who can talk to them, listen to them and understand them. This mutual emotional bond of caring and sharing is established by the elderly people residing in the same campus and it also facilitates adoption of each child by an elderly person. Through such interactions the child is able to meet, share his or her thoughts and take the advice from the elderly persons. Whereas the elderly person also feels happy that he or she is able to contribute to the needs of the child and that he or she is much loved and needed by somebody. This is a very good model for creating mutual emotional attachment between the younger generation and the ageing population. I am glad that the Helpage India is promoting such kind of programmes. It can consider further widening the scope of such activities by establishing linkages between different orphanages, NGOs and institutions working for the welfare of physically and mentally challenged, needy women and the groups of elderly citizens.

Counselling and Reformation

Leaving the elderly members of family in oldage homes is mainly an urban phenomenon. Organisations such as Helpage have a role to play in counselling the younger generation to develop a positive attitude towards the older people. There is a need to create awareness among the younger generation, to emphasize that older people are precious for any family, society and country by virtue of not only their experience, guidance, help and support but also by their active participation in many developmental activities. Such proactive awareness programmes for the young may be instrumental in changing few minds to fulfill their responsibilities towards their elders.

How to use the human capital ?

Old people have vast experience in life in addition to their knowledge in specialist areas where they had worked for a number of decades. This experience must be made use of by the younger generation for enriching their life. NGOs can create an environment through which this experience and knowledge can be tapped for the benefit of the society. Inmates can extend their services to the illiterates in the neighbouring society and make them able to atleast read and write. This will be a very rewarding experience for the older people. Members who had worked in specialist areas such as medicine, law, accounting etc. can provide consultancy to the poor and needy. NGOs can facilitate the elder citizens to form a cooperative and create self help groups to undertake resource generation tasks with the help of younger members. Such interactions will provide a sense of satisfaction and transform the lives of all the senior members of society and make them feel productive partners in societal activities.

Pen friends and e-mail friends

NGOs can contribute in creating a database containing name, date of birth, email and postal address etc. of young people who are in need of emotional support and guidance. Their contact details should be made available to the senior citizens periodically so that they can initiate establishing contact with them by sending wishes on birthday, festivals etc. This type of communication may trigger a cordial note between the elderly and the young ones and lead to a life long continuous communication between them.

Making a Programme for the day

Old age Homes should plan and prepare a programme of activity for each member. For this activity they can make use of the services of one of the senior inmates who is good in planning. Planning should take into account the knowledge and experience of the person in successful completion of certain assignments. Planned activity could include teaching, consultancy, counselling, mailing, games etc. Ingenuity lies in making each of the activity a source of inspiration for each individual. Apart from 3 to 4 hours of planned schedule, they can have cultural and spiritual activities which can include discourse and discussion on epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Geeta, Quran, Bible etc.

Active Ageing

In case of elderly people, their body may have been aged but their minds can be still young. All of us have to contribute to retain the youngness and enhance creativity of their minds by facilitating their active involvement in providing solutions to problems and challenges. Problems and challenges could be local within the community and also for those who are in need of help outside the establishment. This again will need the efforts of the NGOs to reach out to those people who are in need of genuine help. Bringing together such needy groups will be a great healer for the senior citizens in coming out of their problems and extending a helping hand to others.

Invoking the media

Media can play a positive role and remind the younger generation about their responsibilities towards the elderly. This can be done effectively by narrating the successful relationships in certain families and the role played by each member in bringing about the harmonious relationship. Everyone has to make a self analysis to determine the typical compromising stand which is required to be taken for maintaining a healthy relationship. NGOs can also provide case studies for projection by media in which cordial relationships have been restored through their counselling and intervention.

Conclusion

Every individual should treat his parents and other elderly members of the family with great respect. It is not possible for a son or a daughter to repay the debt due to parents on account of their great sacrifice by them in looking after him and bringing him up in life. A son should always act in a manner which pleases the father and mother. When they are happy about his conduct he obtains everything good in this world. This message should be brought to the notice of all members of the younger generation to facilitate considered action by them, crucial to their own growth, prosperity and safety.

I wish you all success in your noble endeavours towards facilitating a happy, healthy and active life for all elderly people.

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