Homes for elderly shut in Tamil Nadu, senior citizens face abuse

CHENNAI: Homes for the elderly in the state have largely stopped taking in new residents due to the still raging Covid-19 pandemic and many senior citizens are bearing the brunt. Officials from HelpAge India say they have been getting an increasing number of calls from senior citizens, complaining of harassment and abuse from their family members since they are all locked indoors and have no place else to go.
“Until at least a month before the lockdown, we would get about four calls a month on abuse and harassment of the elderly. However, since the past three months, we get no less than six a week,” said Muthukrishnan, senior manager of HelpAge India. Most of them, he said, complained of physical and verbal abuse from their children, and many also tried to reach out to old age homes, but almost all were shut. A few opened earlier this month but they are only allowing people with a certificate saying they are free of Covid-19, he said.
“Every time we get a request we put them in touch with the district social welfare officer and get them tested for the virus and later move them to the home,” he said.
While requests of helping senior citizens moved to old age homes were many, those that are functioning only take in a limited number of people. “We re-opened last week and since then I have been receiving no less than five calls a day from old and bereaved people, desperately wanting to move out of their homes,” said Senthil Kumar, founder of Brindavanam Old Age Home. “However, despite the increasing number of calls, we can only take in a few people. And we are doing the best we can.”
A recent survey conducted by AgeWell Foundation, a civil society organisation, among 5,000 senior citizens across the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai found that for 71% of them cases of abuse increased during the lockdown and after. A majority, 56%, said they faced a wide range of abuse including disrespect, verbal abuse, silent treatment, denying food, their daily needs, medical requirements, physical and emotional violence and that they were being forced to go out and work.
Over the past one month, senior officials from the state social welfare department have helped move at least 80 senior citizens from in and around Chennai and Kancheepuram to old age homes nearby, following complaints of abuse by their children. “District social welfare officers have intervened in all these matters and taken necessary action,” an official said