No place for the aged
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 02, 2013 -

In her poem, 'Middle Age', Kamala Das (31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), the noted Indian English poet and littérateur who hailed from Kerala, reveals how agonisingly painful it is for a mother when she is neglected and ignored by our own children.

Though Kamala Das wrote the poem many years ago, but the loneliness, the pain and the agony experienced by the parents when their children do not have even time to share a sweet word or two for them is becoming all the more poignant and reflective in this fast changing world of materialism and consumerism.

We are specially referring to this poem in the backdrop of International Day of Elderly or Older Persons, which was observed every year on October 1 with such gusto all over. Of course, the day has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly to raise awareness not just on the issues affecting senior citizens but also to appreciate the contribution made by them to the family, the community and the society at large.

This year, United Nations has focussed on the theme of "The future we want: what older persons are saying". With the issues related to population aging emerging as one of the most difficult challenges of all time, it is said that the theme of the observance has been chosen this year to draw attention to the efforts of older people, civil society organizations, United Nations organizations and Member States to place the issue of ageing on the international development agenda and most importantly to take time to listen to what the older persons are saying.

Like every year and on every occasion, Manipur joined the rest of the global community in observing the International of Elderly or Older Persons along with organising various functions and programmes.

As understood, these commemorative functions and programmes are reverberated with talks and speeches on the responsibility of the young people to take care of their elders.

But how these messages actually going into the head of young people at homes or in Government offices in Manipur needs to be analyst.

While emergence of nucleus families has snapped the familial bonding between the children and their parents at home, it is a common sight in Manipur to see elderly persons, who have given the best part of their life and services to the family and the Government, standing in long queues in front of the banks for hours under the scorching sun or pouring rain for withdrawal of their pension amounts or at times, compelling them to stage demonstration against deprivation of their pension amount for months.

On the other hand, apart from resorting to favouritism and discrimination at the time of enlisting beneficiaries under old age pension schemes, politicians are shamelessly fighting over distribution of the old age pension amounts among the beneficiaries in their respective assembly constituencies.

Does not all these show Manipuri society is becoming a place for no old men or women? Each one of us should ask this question and try to find out the answer on the occasion of observing International Day of Elderly or Older Persons every.

That would be a more befitting commemoration of the UN designated day rather than more talks and speeches.