SCAN appeals to avail toll free number

October 1 is International Day of Older People  

Our Correspondent
Kohima | September 30

National Helpline for Senior Citizens, Nagaland (Elder Line) today extended best wishes all senior citizens a happy World Elders Day and urged the senior citizens to call Elder Line Toll Free No –14567 to avail the services provided by the Helpline which will operate the services from 8:00 am to 8: 00 pm.

The Helpline is mandated to facilitate four different services, which are as follows: Information – The helpline would provide information related to elder care service providers, pension, Government  Schemes, benefits etc., based on caller’s requirements.

Senior Citizen Association Nagaland (SCAN), president, Khekiye K Sema IAS (Rtd) expressed joy over the launching of Elder Line and mentioned that focus has been given not only at the urban level but down to the rural level as well.

“Times have changed and though we have a very strong cultural background as tribal people, at the rural base, the society or the church takes care of the very helpless people, through NGOs and the churches within the village, taking care of the elementary needs of the elders. But with the changing times, especially in the urban centres, we have elderly parents who get left behind at home the whole day,” he said.

The children are busy working for their own sustenance. The younger generation may never realize how lonely it can be for the senior citizen. He said health wise and physically, parents are unable to do the activities they have been doing through their life’s journey. Social activities, even a simple activity of interacting with the people all slowly diminish over the years. At the end of the day, they have very few people to communicate with. In this situation, a simple activity just to help himself/herself becomes challenging for an elderly.

Creating a helpline for the elderly people will certainly bring a boom to the senior citizens who will atleast have a chance to either talk with someone in the helpline or even share a little problem that their children may not have the time and so on, Sema said.

He look forward for the possibility of wanting and creating such a space in every district headquarters for instance and then at the rural base, hence down to even the village level. The community hence can help create such a centre where the elderly people who cannot go for “Kheti” (field) work anymore, along with the little children who also get left behind, create centers where the elders and the young ones spent time together happily, he said.

“Our only handicap has been that we haven’t had the time to think carefully as senior citizens. We meet up once in a while to discuss, pick up agendas and disburse. We haven’t had the time to seriously think about what can we really do to make the life of the elderly a little more pleasant in their time of loneliness,” he said.

Over the years, as we go along, we will do the best we can to exchange ideas and see how best we can take this programme forward and see what pleasant changes we can bring about to the whole operation, he added.

He thanked all for all the efforts that have been put in to create this helpline and “we have to try our best to let both the urban and rural sector know that such facilities have been created where the inputs will create more and more efficient avenues for the elder citizens to get small benefits from the government from the society from which ever category of services that can be rendered from whoever it maybe, NGOs and so on.”