India washes hands of rights for the elderly

India, unlike its neighbours Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, remained undecided on a United Nations-sponsored international legal instrument to protect the "rights" and "dignity" of the older population - whose number is rapidly rising. Chetan Chauhan reports. The India situation

Updated on: Dec 31, 2012, 02:05:23 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

India, unlike its neighbours Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, remained undecided on a United Nations-sponsored international legal instrument to protect the "rights" and "dignity" of the older population - whose number is rapidly rising.

Due to better health facilities, the number of older people in India will rise dramatically in the next four decades. According to advocacy group Agewell Foundation, the share of India's population aged 60 and older is projected to climb from about 100 million in 2010 to around 323 million by 2050 - higher than the total population of the US in 2012.

"This profound shift in the very limited old-age income support brings with it a variety of social, economic, and health care policy challenges," said Himanshu Rath of the foundation. As of now, the average life expectancy rate in India is 66.80 years. It was just 37 when India gained independence.

To address the problem of rising population of elder citizens, the United Nations had set up working groups to look into the problems faced by senior citizens and suggest an over-arching legal instrument to provide them security in old age.

Based on the third working group report, the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted a resolution to have a legal instrument based on a holistic approach in the fields of social development, human rights and gender equality.

India, along with China, United States and Germany, were among the 118 countries that abstained from voting in favour of the resolution. However, neighbouring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh supported the resolution, which spoke on having uniform legal safeguards for the elderly across the world.

India, despite having several laws for the protection of older citizens, has failed to implement the legislations - resulting in many senior citizens having to suffer because of low income. This has happened because there is no law in India to conserve the human rights of elderly people.

An Agewell Foundation survey of about 50,000 elderly, released in August 2012, found that only 20% were aware of legal protection and its usage. Around three-fourth of the respondents were unsure about getting justice from the slow legal system.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.