The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007 of Government of India
I PERSONALLY feel it is the moral responsibility of children to ensure the welfare of their parents. It will be really a Herculean task for the government to ensure this. Some of the definitions that the Bill encompasses are vague. The first question obviously is defining a senior citizen. Presently, definitions vary across States. Therefore the government should define the senior citizen uniformly at the national level. The bill talks about maintenance only in financial terms but is silent on the abuse of elders. It is silent on psycho-social care too.
Amongst the major issues the people of our country face are unemployment and job insecurity. This being the case how can children provide maintenance of up to Rs.10,000/- to the parents? After all what they can set aside for parents is a function of what they earn. It is not clear who will decide the amount payable to parents by way of maintenance and how the said decision will be taken. Nor does the bill say how it will be ensured that the money is promptly disbursed every month to the parents.
As for childless seniors, one does not know which relative will take care of their maintenance. In such cases, strictly speaking, the government should provide maintenance since they will not need to depend upon relatives. An-other possibility is the children predeceasing their parents. In such cases too, it is not clear who will maintain the parents. Then there are parents with disabled children. Here too the Bill cannot afford to remain silent.
The bill envisions establishment of tribunals to ensure the smooth functioning of the scheme. Ground reality reveals that government is always short of judicial hands; this being the case would the government succeed in promptly establishing and managing the tribunals? Further, how many parents will appeal to the tribunal against their children? How long the parents will have to wait for the verdict of the tribunal, given that our country is notorious for delayed justice? Who will ensure that the scheme will not be misused or abused, because only parents have the right to appeal?
State governments have already set up old-age homes and we know only too well how they are maintained and run (or not run). In the circumstances, the following is suggested to smooth out the inconsistencies:
Government should issue guidelines concerning the standards, ser-vices, code of conduct, psycho-social care, geriatric care , monitoring and evaluation of old-age homes and the so-called retirement town-ships.
Private trusts and corporates should be encouraged to establish and run old-age homes under appropriate supervision.
Guidelines should cover grandparents also (wherever applicable); they should clearly state who will maintain the grand parents.
School and college students, workers and the community in general should be sensitized to the needs of the senior citizens in general and aged parents in particular. Towards this end, government should con-duct social campaigns jointly with schools, colleges, organisations and NGOs, nationwide.
Steps should be taken to bridge the generation gap so the younger generation will know what its duties and responsibilities are towards the older generation in the context of the problems that the latter is faced with during the twilight years.
We should also introduce social security a la USA. The beneficiary pays when he / she is young in order to lead a financially-independent life during the twilight years, without burdening the children. Although this can be enforced by law, the motivation should come from within. Government should hold nationwide debates and invite suggestions from senior citizen associations, youth associations, NGO’s and other like-minded people. It should be a social campaign. In fact the government can dedicate a year to the elders and call it the Year of the Senior Citizen.
I hope, before passing the bill, government will look into all these suggestions. As they say:Forget yourself for others and others will never forget you
By Sailesh Mishra
Source :http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=125871
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