Loneliness a Major Challenge For Senior Citizens In The City, Says ASCOP Survey

Pune: ‘Do not regret growing old, it is a privilege denied to many’. So the saying goes. However, according to a survey by Association of Senior Citizens of Pune (ASCOP), nearly 64 per cent of seniors in the city lead a lonely life. 

The reasons for the loneliness are death of spouse, couples with no children, children living outside the city/ state or country, space crunch, physical disability or being unmarried among others. 

Talking to Sakal Times, ASCOP President RT Wazarkar said, “We chose this topic of loneliness as it means their security and safety is at stake. The number of incidents wherein senior citizens have been attacked is rising.”

He said, “Considering the pace of the city, stepping out for any work has become dangerous and difficult. Similarly, if you get a person for help from the bureau, many times, these persons have attacked the senior citizens.”

“Those who are unmarried live with relatives or alone making them vulnerable. Other reasons for loneliness include couples with no children, death of spouse, children living overseas, having only girl child, space crunch, differences with children, physical disability and financial worries,” he said.

Wazarkar added, “We carried out the survey between 2016 and 2018  from East, West, North and South areas of the city and concluded that 10 per cent of seniors live alone while 64 per cent despite living in or near the family feel isolated and lonely. 

Similarly, 29 per cent seniors do not have their own houses and 74 per cent are suffering from multiple diseases.”

International Longevity Centre (ILC) Executive President Anjali Raje said, “Another big worry for them is that the number of women are more than men. This leads them to utter loneliness as most of the time they are financially dependent on family members, cannot venture out or stay alone and suffer from one or multiple problems.”

Results of the survey

• 83 per cent have not registered with the police
• 64 per cent live alone despite being with or near family
• 18 per cent do no have any source of income
• 20 per cent were dependent on children/ families for financial needs
• 44 per cent have more than one type of disease
• 66 per cent do no want to live in old age homes
• 38 per cent have health insurance

How to ward off loneliness

• Participate in social or cultural programmes
• Write or read
• Teach music to younger children
• Play with children
• Volunteer for senior citizen groups

ILC programmes

• International Longevity Centre offers training and field work programmes. For the training programme, a certificate course instituted by United Nations International Institute on Ageing, Malta is conducted by ILC.
• Mobile literacy training is given free of cost.

Growing numbers

• According to 2011 Census, there are 104 million senior citizens in our country among them 53 million are women and 51 million men.
• 29 pc of seniors are in urban areas and 71 pc in rural areas
• Projected population: By 2026 there will be 173 million will be seniors in the country
• According to a survey held in 2018, in Maharashtra, the number of seniors is 1.25 crore and seniors constitute 10 per cent of total population of Pune.