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PEOPLE-AGED (UNICEF FEATURE)
Aged people our assets, not liabilities: Experts
DHAKA, Sept 30, 2018 (BSS/UNICEF FEATURE) – Right activists and experts
today sounded a note of warning to not to abuse elderly people of the society
as they are country’s assets not liabilities.
According to National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque,
“Elderly people are in no way liabilities to society and rather ‘our assets’
as they carry the experience of the past and pass it on to the new
generation.”
“Bangladesh has enacted the Parents Maintenance Act and has a wonderful
national policy for elderly persons that covers everything (aspects) . . .
what we need to do is to disseminate and enforce them . . . most importantly
we had a social value towards the elderly people which we now need to
revive,” he said.
Hoque said there was a trend of ‘neglect and abuse’ of senior citizens in
view of changing social pattern and issued a clarion call for increasing
awareness to soothe life of aged people.
“Something appears to be going wrong in the social system . . . neglect and
abuse of elderly parents by their children appears to be a new social trend
in Bangladesh,” Dr Rahman Jilani, founder and executive director of London-
based Sir William Beveridge Foundation (SWBF) told the news agency.
He suggested use of mosques as centres for social works including the
campaign for safeguarding the senior citizens while urged people to recall
the heritage of Bengali society which put high emphasis on caring elderly
parents.
Jilani feared that despite being a growing trend, the issue of ‘neglect and
abuse’ of elderly persons go unreported in most of the cases, barring social
and administrative intervention though such acts were punishable under the
country’s legal system.
“Just imagine you have become 75-year old and then think what type of
behavior you expect from others and shape your attitude,” said Professor Dr
ASM Atiqur Rahman of Social Welfare and Research Institute of Dhaka
University.
Reputed nutrition expert Professor Dr Keramat Ali said 26 percent who walks
along the Dhanmandi Lake were found to be suffering from cognitive
impairment, updated term of dementia.
Neuro psychiatrist Colonel Dr M Quamrul Hassan said three types of doctors
– geriatrists, neurologists and psychiatrists were meant to treat the elderly
people, while in most cases the psychiatrists can cover also the tasks of two
other disciplines in handling the dementia.
BSS/UNICEF-FEATURE/DH/MHR/OG/1640 hrs