Elderly citizens country's assets, not liabilities: Experts

Rights activists and experts have sounded on Sunday a note of warning against the abuse of elderly people of the society as they are the country's assets not liabilities, reports BSS.

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 urging 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 Prof Dr ASM Atiqur Rahman of Social Welfare and Research Institute of Dhaka University.

Reputed nutrition expert Prof Dr Keramat Ali said 26 per cent who walk 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.