How safe are senior citizens in today’s world

The recent murder of an elderly couple, who lived in a flat in North Kolkata, has thrown up a major question on the safety of elderly people who live in metros and are always at the mercy of others. Their daughter stays abroad and the professor couple lived all alone in the flat.

Both of them were retired professors and they had a young man to do odd jobs in the house. This man was supposed to be very reliable and trustworthy because the elderly couple had helped him out in many ways. They had got him married to a girl who used to be their maid servant and had even financed a cycle rickshaw so that he could earn a decent living. It seems this young man murdered both of them and ransacked the flat searching for money that the old man had withdrawn from the bank. Incidentally, he had gone to bank on the same cycle rickshaw of the murderer. This murder is now being debated by all media outlets and no one really knows how to tackle such problems. Yes, the police keep advising people, especially aged people, to keep records of all those who work in their house and pass it on to the local police. But, that can never be enough. With the disappearance of the joint family system, the bonds between members of a family have weakened and the effects are felt at every step. The sons and daughters are either away in distant places because of jobs or because of marriage and the parents are left to fend for themselves in a world that shows no mercy. These elderly persons do not have any shortage of money, what they are short of is the closeness of the immediate family. In today’s world, contact can certainly be maintained through SMSs or phone calls or even through chat rooms – but, the personal touch is missing, it can never be replaced with any other means. Father’s Day, Mother’s Day are all ornamental stuff and, when one grows old, one wants something more than just words. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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