National Policy On Older People

It was in May 1999 that the “National Council for Older Persons” was set up by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that works under Government of India. Under this policy, government took the steps to instruct the State government to offer facilities, discounts and support to senior people so that they can live a worth full life. Few of the services provided under this scheme are financial aid, health facilities, sheltered education, safeguarding both life and property of senior citizen, etc. The instructions have been given to various Government departments for supporting these causes and many of the departments have started taking steps in providing the facilities to the senior members of the society in Delhi.

Few of the detailed activities about the facilities and concessions given to senior citizens are listed below:-

Health Department

• For older people who are of age 60 years and above, special clinics are set up on Sundays in 9 government hospitals located in the city of Delhi. The hospitals who provide these facilities and work under Government of HCT are Lok Nayak Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhaya Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, GTB Hospital, Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital, Dr. Joshi Memorial Hospital and Rao Tula Ram Hospital. This facility is provided from 10 AM to 12 noon every Sunday and the facilities provided under this are medicine, orthopaedics, ENT and eye specialist, surgery, gynaecology along with the facility of Lab services and Radiology diagnostics services.

• Every government hospital that works under the jurisdiction of Delhi Government has a distinct registration counter, even few of the hospitals also facilitate by having separate rooms in OPD for senior members. The senior citizens are also given priority for pathological tests or examination on the basis of sequence.

• At every hospital or dispensary, a separate line is provided for senior members in order to provide them with the preference for taking medicines that are provided by the hospital.

Delhi Transport Corporation

• The senior members are given the facility of taking tickets at discounted rates:-

• Every hospital has been instructed to have separate counters for the senior citizens for Pass issuance and Pass renewal.

• DTC buses do not provide any reserved seats for senior citizens. The bust just displays a message “Please offer seats to old citizens”.

Police Department

There are various protection schemes that have been initiated by Police in the city of Delhi for benefitting the senior citizens. Few of the facilities provided under this scheme comprises of:-

• Each and every SHO is ordered to list out the names of elder members in the society especially who are staying alone and need protection.

• The police held the responsibility of visiting such elder members on weekly routines. In case, such people hire any servant, detailed verification of the hired servant must be done by the Police.

• The Police also must take initiative of instructing the security men of the area to provide special support to senior citizens.

• The divisional officers and the SHOs will examine the homes and provide them with the different security measures that the senior members can install at their homes.

• The senior members must be motivated of installing the security alarm bell at their residence that alerts their neighbours during time of crisis.

• NGOs like Helpage could also be contacted by the Police officials to look into new ways of supporting the senior citizens.

The senior citizens can also take the legal support in case they are being harassed by any of their neighbours, relatives or any other person. Even the senior members are also educated to keep an eye on their surroundings for any doubtful happenings.

Separate queues and counters for Senior Citizens at Public places

The other government offices who provide the facilities of special services to the senior citizens is in offices of MTNL, Governmental hospitals, Railways, public distribution outlets etc. The other departments who are planning to start this facility are MCD, DVB, NDMC, DJB etc.