Heritage Helpline for senior citizens
Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy
Yesterday was another great day for senior citizens of Hyderabad.
Heritage Helpline run by Heritage Foundation (read: KRG of Heritage
Hospitals) was revived after a gap of a few years.
About the Helpline per-se:
The Helpline is open during 8.00am to 8.00 pm on all week days.
Counseling over phone, handling elder abuse cases and offering health
assistance & referral services are main activities. Elder abuse
victims will be heard, visited and their victimizers counseled and
advised. Police help and intervention are assured and given when
warranted.
The Helpline is fully supported by the City Police Department as a
Joint Commissioner of Police has been entrusted with the task of
guiding and mentoring this activity. Close liaison with health
departments and government hospitals is planned. A database of single
seniors and volunteers will be developed and made available to public.
Objectives of the helpline include:
Bringing together senior citizen volunteers
Set up self-help groups
Build rapport with govt departments
Co-ordinate advocacy efforts
Create Grievance redressal machinery for elders
Drafting recommendations to government agencies etc
The meeting proper:
The re-launch meeting started with registration & warming up session
when participants were treated to Tea & hot Samosas as and when they
arrived without wasting time exclusively for this activity.
Registration invited seniors to volunteer too.
Sri Gangadharan, who needs no intro, welcomed the gathering and
dignitaries. He explained the purpose and agenda of the meeting
briefly. Sri Rohit Jain, MD, Dee Cee Security systems Pvt Limited
explained a security system called Omnipolis for single seniors. A
device fitted in the house is connected to police control room. In
emergencies if a button is pressed, an alert is made in the Police
control room which tells the address and location (on a map) of the
victim. Volunteers and police personnel may then be directed to reach
the victim without delay. We missed his Power Point presentation due
to paucity of time. (I will be sending a separate note on this soon).
Sri Vijya Sen Reddy, leading Advocate in the city, explained the
provisions of various legal enactments protecting the senior citizens,
widows etc. He asked very pertinently: why something like Section 498A
available to woman for dowry harassment, be not made for senior
citizens?. He informed that Tribunals will be set up in AP after
releasing the State rules under the senior law. Under this senior law,
lawyers can not represent elder. This provision is specially included
to avoid delays in getting justice. He stressed that senior citizens
should assert themselves. Police department can help in a big way in
implementing the tribunal's orders, once passed.
Sri RN Mital, convener of Andhra Pradesh Senior Citizens
Confederation, said that the Helpline has listed the proposed
activities very exhaustively. He wanted the Helpline to assist or take
up cases of social injustice done to poor elders. For instance, there
are many lapses in disbursing the old age pension. Helpline could be
of assistance here. For example, out of 37 persons who applied for
old age pension in one mandal only three who could give bribes got it.
Other persons were denied.
Sri Kripanand Tripathi Ujela, Joint Commissioner of Police was
appalled at the corrupt ways of government officials when they try to
rob poor senior citizens even of their measly pension. He condemned
such activities. He also explained how the Police hotline 100 will
have 32 connections now easing the traffic. He advised us to form a
pressure group and forge ahead with pressing the government for
solutions and proper implementation of welfare schemes.. He also
stressed that every senior citizen must have important Police
personnel's phone numbers ready at hand.
Ms Nalladaru President of Ishaq Colony resident welfare Association
said that we should adopt "Each one, Help One" policy. Ignorance
among senior citizens must be eliminated by self help groups and
associations. Next Ms Suma of Heritage summarized the gist of all
earlier speakers for the benefit of Sri Prasad Rao, the City Police
Commissioner who joined the meeting around 5.00pm. Suma did a
wonderful job of summarizing, of which I am envious.
Participants raised a number of questions which were subsequently
taken up by the Commissioner of Police during his speech. Narration of
the harrowing experiences of Elder Abuse by a 75 year old victim
brought tears to many. The commissioner described how problems of
senior citizens, unknown a decade ago, have surfaced now due the
collapse of joint family system. Much of the problems of isolation,
loneliness, neglect and abuse are highly intricate and there are many
sides to the story. One must learn to cope up with the reality, he
said. He also emphasized that senior citizens must form self help
groups. SCAs can help the police in developing a database of single
seniors. Police will concentrate on providing safety to single
seniors, verify the past of new domestic servants etc if asked for.
He also mentioned about Omnipolis security system about to be
introduced in Hyderabad.
The meeting was well organized. Nearly sixty persons from Senior
Citizens organizations, Volunteers who had signed in, members of
Heritage club, Police, press, NGOs etc participated. The silent hand
of Ms Parveen Ansar and her contribution to the success of the show
were visible everywhere, right from Registration, to tea, arrangement
of chairs etc. As Sri Gangadharan said it was an informal meeting and
I liked the business like way the whole thing went off – smoothly. I
hope the senior citizens will loose no time in utilizing the services.
--
Dr P Vyasamoorthy,
Society for Serving Seniors
30, Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500015
Phone 27846631 / 94908 04278
http://societyforservingseniors.satyamcsr.org
dandapani ramasubbaih
Dandapani.R.
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NANDA PRMILA
| Excellent summarisation. While You are envying Suma I amd envying you. Pramila Nanda --- On Sun, 3/8/08, dandapani ramasubbaih <dpoth...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: |
From: dandapani ramasubbaih <dpoth...@yahoo.co.uk> |
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Parveen Ansar
Dear Dr Vyaasmoorthy Sir,
W Thank you for being a part of us in the seminar, and giving us some valid points for having a running the helpline with quality. Thanks a milion for the appreciation shown towards my collegue, and the way the seminar was held. Sir the whole credit goes to the Man behind our org.
We thank you once again, and look forward for your help in every field,
God bless Sir,
Parveen Ansar General Manager Heritage Hopspital 6-3-907/2,Somajiguda Hyderabad - 82 Tel. 040 23379999, Fax. 23379207 Cell. 99480 79206 www.heritagehealthcareindia.com |
From: dandapani ramasubbaih <dpoth...@yahoo.co.uk> |
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