Students take pledge to treat elders with care

68-year-old Sreelakshmi had worked hard until her retirement as a primary school Tamil teacher, to take care of her three sons. Having lost her husband a few years after their youngest son was born, she took the full responsibility of bringing them up. 

However, as she began to age, her eldest son – whom she lives with - gets embarrassed by her presence when guests arrive and keeps her locked within her room.

This is not an isolated case. Such incidents are on the rise today, as opposed to a few years ago. “Children too fail to show any respect to their grandparents, something they learnt from their parents. 

Therefore, to create awareness of the need to respect elders, this World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on Thursday, we are holding a campaign, wherein school children will take a pledge not to disrespect their elders,” said Dr V S Natarajan, founder of the Dr V S Natarajan Geriatric Foundation. 

With an increasing percentage of people leaving their parents in old age homes nowadays, the elderly tend to feel lonely and develop depression. 

“There was a time when elders were treated with respect by their children and grand children.  Unfortunately, the same elders are considered a burden these days. They face physical, verbal, financial and sometimes sexual abuse. 

However, it is not spoken about and the awareness about the issue is also very low,” explained Natarajan. 

The Foundation’s initiative to encourage students to take a pledge was highly appreciated by the Department of School Education and the state government, which issued an Official Circular directing all schools under their jurisdiction to undertake the pledge, to respect the elderly, at their schools.