Hyderabad City police holds meet on challenges faced by elders

Hyderabad: The city police organised a 'Stakeholder Consultation' meeting on elderly issues at the CCS conference hall on Tuesday. The common challenges faced by the elderly persons, the protocol for addressing abuse cases and the support that has to be extended to senior citizens by various departments and related issues were discussed.

All senior officials including the Commissioner of Police, RDOs of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, representatives from NGOs like Tata Trust, and old age homes and other government departments like revenue took part in the workshop.

Speaking on the occasion, Shikha Goel, Addl. Commissioner of Police (Crimes) said senior citizens can approach the SHE Teams and Bharosa centres to report any physical or mental abuse. She also asked them to make use of Hawkeye App and Dial 100.

Indira Narayan, president of Senior Citizens Forum, spoke on the difficulties being faced by senior citizens on day-to-day basis. Difficulties faced during travel, cases of domestic help causing damage, monitoring of CCTV cameras were discussed. The CP urged the stakeholder departments and other NGOs to come and join hands for bringing about more awareness and effective implementation of the rules.

The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 was discussed in detail by the resource person Muralidhara. Verifying the antecedents of domestic servants by senior citizens was emphasized. Md. Raza from Help Age and Pushpalatha, Asst. Director, Senior Citizens Department, also shared their views.