KOHIMA, JUNE 17 (MExN): A one day seminar on awareness of “Elderly People Care Givers” (Geriatric Care) was organized by Good Seminar Women Society in collaboration with Angami Women Organisation recently. The resource person was Neithonuo Liegise, Managing Director of Old Age Home, Kohima.
The resource person stated that with the changing of the world from hunting period to Industrailisation, urbanization, and modernization, aging had now become a social problem which was also being transferred into the Naga context. Neithonuo detailed the different types of elderly abuse like neglect and indifference, financial abuse, emotional abuse and physical abuse, which remained largely hidden within the domain of family privacy.
This problem needs urgent solutions which could be delivered by the presence of other people to whom they could relate, seek assistance and support. The need of counseling for the families, recreational centre, day care centre, old age home, mobile Medicare, etc. was also suggested as solutions to this problem.
President of the AWO, Kevinourheno Seyie, also highlighted the problems of the elderly who are graded according to the customs and traditions, class, gender, rural and urban locations. She stressed that the present socio-cultural changes, structural changes in the family system, lifestyle, lack of health facilities, institutionalization, retirement, government programmes and policies concerning the elderly in the state were the real causes of the suffering of the elderly persons in Nagaland.
Kevinourheno also said that a large percentage of the elderly in Nagaland, in their seventies, were involved in physical labour in their agricultural fields of other work beneficial to the household and themselves, which was a pity.
Saying that many of the Union Ministry policies for the elderly lacked in depth and insight, the president of AWO said that the Naga elderly were mainly engaged in Agriculture in their villages and hence could not make any use of the income tax benefits, gratuity, provident fund, railway and air tickets etc included in the Union Ministry schemes. In this context, Kevinourheno recommended a careful assessment of the genuine needs of the elderly of all sections of the society by the policy makers, planners and social scientist. It also made mention of free medical facilities to be provided at their doorstep particularly in rural areas to meet the ever growing problems of the elderly population.
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