Old is Gold

"And he died....all alone with nobody around him. He had been ill for quite some time and there was no one to take care of him. He had little money so could not afford to be admitted to a fancy hospital where everything would be taken care for him at his advanced age of 82 years. The body was discovered after 2 days almost rotten difficult to identify"....how many times we hear this and how many times we feel that it might be our fate tomorrow. As the average life span of Indians increases people outlast their savings. The country still struggles witht he lack of social security infrastructure for old people. Today as we claim to have the largest youngest population in the world over the years we would also claim to have the largest population of old people in the world and it is about time the country woke up to the needs of the old people. We need to learn our lessons from the economies like Japan who have a large chunk of population comprising of the old.
With harldy any population working in the organized sector old age planning through PFs and pension schemes is avaialble to very few and to those few also it is usually not sufficient for their requirements. Over the years with high inflation usuallly the planning fell way short of what is required for a comfortable living with age. Even though today there are coopoeratives and organizations like Seva which try to provide old age planning to people in the unorganziaed sector but a handful of efforts would not solve an issue whice is basically systemic.
As a nation when we do not shy away from providing subsidies to various social groups based on castes then how can we shy away as a nation from our responsibility of our senior citizens wo have contributed to the growth of the nation through there lives. Why do we want to pinch pennies by cutting down rates of interest from there savings? Why cant we have separate sections in the government hospiatals to take care of senior citizens? Why cant the government fund the treatment of a certsin age group and above? There is today a greater need for better infrastrucutre in terms of customized saving scemes for old age planning, creating greater infrastructure for old people through making availble medical help, old age homes, activity groups etc.
This is also a great opportunity for the busness houses who can identify opportunities for providing services and products speciffic to the requirement of the old people. Some the products which are innovatively being used in advanced natioins are like reverse mortgage of land where a bank pays a person a certain annuity over his/her remaining lifetime against his property. As long as the person is alive he/she can use the property but once he passes away the propoerty goes to the bank. Similarly setting up various activity clubs for the old people where they can come and spend ther time creatively with people of their own age group. Even things like higher retirement age and opportunities for reemployment post retirement. Loans for setting up small businesses post retirement are thing wich the governemnt needs to look into. But equlally important will be the role of the legislature to protect the rights of this vulnerable group. Whether it is against domestic violence, lack of proper care at home or security to people of certain ages and above staying alone.
We are a nation where respect for elders is an engrained value which we grow up with, but sadly we today ourselves need a lesson to take care of our senior citizens...