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SBL - Article by Sweety Mandal

I happened to visit a hospital in Behala; Kolkata 24 parganas, and was surprised to see more than one dozen elderly people aged above 60; have been abandoned by their family. It is panic to look at their empty eyes, waiting day and night with the hope that some one will come to take them back home.

These people were brought here for treatment and then abandoned by their family members. Once admitted nobody came to take them back. According to the doctors they found the address of 3-4 people and took them back home but their family initially was not ready to take them back and ultimately accepted them only after lot of arguments. According to the nurses sometimes these people cry like children to go back home and even refuse to eat food. They are still waiting for somebody to take them back.

The main reason for abandoning seems to be poverty and the other reason is the young generation is too busy and independent now-a-days and they feel these elderly people as burden.

How do the children’s forget the amount of hardship taken by the parents to bring them up and whatever problems aroused the parents never abandon the children’s. Even if all the parents are not able to provide the children’s with all the luxuries of life but still they try to fulfil all the basic needs of life and moreover the amount of security and love given by them cannot be compared to anything else. These are the same things they expect from us at their old age.

Do you think the reward for whatever they have done for us throughout their life is abandoning them and forcing them to live a terrible lonely life?

The society should also take some major steps to make life better for the elderly people. Social services should be redesigned to maximize the independence of the elderly while minimizing costs. Since the ageing of society is unavoidable we should seek ways to treat the elderly as a resource rather than viewing them as a burden.

This is not something we will be doing for others but we will be doing this for ourselves because one day we will also be old and fate will give us the same as it is well said that “you reap what you sow”.

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