MALDA, Sept. 23: The Malda social welfare department observed Elder Abuse Awareness Day at Malda College auditorium today. They also invited elderly men, women and disabled people from all the blocks of the district.
The top district officials including the sabhadhipati of Malda Zilla Parishad Mrs Sabina Yasmin, the district magistrate Mr CR Das and additional district magistrate Mrs Indrani Saha and others present in the programme to felicitate elderly men and women including a person, 103-year-old, present today.
The department also distributed gadgets to be used by disabled men and women. The speakers highlighted the plight of elderly couples who are neglected by their children.
The officials also announced that it would conduct a survey to find out how many families looking after and care for the elderly members in their family with the help of Malda Women's college students. Citing statistics they claimed that nearly 1.5 crore of the population in the country would be old by 2015. Mr Gobinda Basak, Treasury Officer-I, said: “A lot of elderly men and women in the society are being deprived of their rights”.
Mr Basak further said: “A retired teacher, Mr Abul Hossian of Talbangrua village, who got pension from the government after a wait of seven years, was harassed by the bank officials a few days ago when he wanted to open a joint pension account”. The incident took place in English Bazaar town.
“The regional manager of this particular bank has recently issued an order to ‘freeze’ his pension account on the grounds that this old man has lost his mental stability,” he said.
“Recently, the district administration took initiative to ‘rehabilitate’ an elderly women Kadamvari Debi, who was driven out of her house by family members. She narrated her story before the district magistrate, Mr CR Das, and said that since her life holds no value she wands to die,” Mr Pratyarpan Singha Roy, a government official, said. n SNS
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