Over 1/3rd of elderly face abuse in Amritsar: Report

AMRITSAR: Over one third of the elderly population of the holy city of Amritsar has faced abuse. According to the figures released by the NGO HelpAge India, Amritsar is among the top five cities of the country when it comes to abuse of one of the vulnerable sections of our society.
It released its nationwide report ‘Elder Abuse in India 2018 – Changing Cultural Ethos & Impact of Technology’ on Thursday in Chandigarh.
According to the report, 35% of all elderly people had faced abuse in Amritsar. It was only behind Mangalore, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Delhi where the elderly abuse was recorded at 47%, 46%, 39% and 33% respectively.
“It seems to be a correct figure. There are numerous cases of children abusing their elderly parents,” said Dr Inderjit Kaur, president of Pingalwara Charitable Society, which runs homes for the orphans, destitute and physically disabled. She said in many cases, the elderly were not only abused verbally by their children, but they were also grossly neglected and ‘thrown’ on streets after their children ‘milk’ their savings.
Kaur said besides the old age home, many of the elderly were living in other wards of Pingalwara too. “There are handicapped, mentally and physically challenged elderly people who were not being taken care of by their children,” she said.
Amritsar deputy commissioner (DC) Kamaldeep Singh Sangha said at any given time, there were four to five cases of abuse of elderly parents before him. “We try to resolve such issues,” he said, adding that teaching children to respect their parents should begin when they are toddlers.
“If this figure is correct, I am perturbed. This means there is lot to be done not only for the elderly but also to imbibe values among children to respect their elders,” he said.
Dr Gurbilas Singh, in charge of the old age home run by Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD), however, said they didn’t see cases of elderly people living in their facility being abused by their children. “But as a doctor, I find many elderly people complaining of their children not accompanying them for medical checkups and feel disheartened,” he said.