Old age, lonely and helpless
Chinmay Prasun Biswas :
Palamou by Samjiv Chandra Chatterjee (elder brother of Bankimchandra) is considered as the first successful travelogue in Bengali literature.
Palamou is a place in Bihar and the name of a booklet published between 1287 and 1289 Bengali year in Bangdarshan magazine in six chapters.
Quoting someone unknown the writer has written in that book – unless aged people do not become beautiful.
Away from it we can remember that Nobel laureate American writer Ernest Hemingway wrote his famous novel The Old Man and the Sea, published in 1952, won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize in 1954.
Santiago, the central character of the novel, is an 85-year old Cuban fisherman.
We find him in this novel as an indomitable fisherman who faces adversity on the sea and returns to the shore victorious.
Loneliness, depression, criticism, fatigue do not matter to him.
William Shakespeare, in his poem “Crabbed Age and Youth”, has said that a young and an old have differences like the earth and sky.
Their opinions, interests, perspectives and habits are opposite to each other.
A young person always seeks pleasure and does the things which please him while an old rather believes in care and precautions.
Youth is like summer morning while age is like winter.
Hence, due to sharp contrast between the two, they cannot remain happy with each other.
There are other instances also but it is inevitable that today’s youths will one day turn old. That is the law of nature.
May be Samjiv Chandra Chatterjee is correct that but besides beauty old age brings burdens also.
In the past, diseases dwarfed the life expectancy of people.
Epidemics such as cholera, spring, malaria, tuberculosis, plague, black fever, war, famine and natural disasters reduced average life expectancy.
As a result, many people did not get much opportunity to grow old.
Those who were fortunate to be elder got more respect in society.
Elderly men did not have to suffer much because documents of property (mainly land) were under their control but situation of aged women were totally different.
They had to face humiliation in society and family.
They were addressed as ‘buri’ (old woman) with many sarcastic suffixes and they had to pass life with little or no honour.
Particularly, the younger members of the family often did not behave respectfully with elderly women.
As a result, they had to count their days under anger, sadness, insult, complaints and curse.
Situation has changed. Along the flow of time and advancement of medical science, life expectancy has increased.
At the same time other complexities have crept up.
Mitigating those complexities and ensuring honourable position for the elders have become necessary.
In order to remember and honour the contribution of older people to society, a day has been scheduled.
History informs that in 1954 American Congress passed a bill.
President Eisenhower signed the bill declaring 11th November as Veterans’ Day though it was confined to America.
On 14th December, 1990 the United Nations General Assembly declared 1st October as the International Day of Older Persons.
Since 1991 this day is being celebrated as Senior Citizen’s Day all over the world.
It has similarity with Grandparents’ Day observed in America and Canada and Double Ninth Festival celebrated in Japan.
Old age is very lonely. At this time, hardly anyone is available as a friend except for the life partner.
If the partner passes away loneliness becomes double and almost in all cases life becomes burdened with different diseases. Children remain busy with their own lives.
They have little time to talk properly. Most of the elders spend their days amid odds.
As they feel burdened, many mental problems develop within them and many elderly persons have to take shelter in old homes.
Though painful, it happens.
In our country there is no proper arrangement of entertainment for senior citizens.
They can neither go to cinema nor walk freely in any open park. Seniors mainly want to watch old movies but those are not always available.
Elderly persons want to spend days with family in comfortable and respectful environment.
When he does not get it he sinks into depression and suffers from various mental problems.
At a certain stage, not being able to bear dishonour and negligence, some of them choose horrible options like suicide.
Different things also happen. In this connection we can remember that MV Gangabilash, the longest river cruise in the world, started its first voyage in January of this year with 32 passengers. All of them were aged and retired Swiss citizens.
It is possible for them to spend 51 days for a pleasure-trip in another continent because after retirement they don’t have any family-burden and they are not burdens of their families.
Inversely, almost every retired person in our country has to look after his family.
More than his children, wife or parents, other relatives also depend on him in financial and other matters.
In many cases, if he is a former high official, he has to use his former connections for a bed in a government hospital, for appointment of a renowned physician, recommendation for a job, for transfer/posting, for admission into an educational institution and so on.
In such a situation, the elderly person is considered important but every retired person or elderly person is not fortunate. Yet, that man has own problems also.
The preliminary report of Census and Household Census 2022′ informs that the number of 60+ people in the country is 1,53,26,000,719 i.e. 9.28% of total population against 7.47% in 2011 census.
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that by 2025-26 the number will reach 20 million and 4.5 crore in 2050. Are we prepared for it?
A portion of senior citizens receive old-age allowance. According to website of Department of Social Services, 57 lakh people have been given old-age allowance of Tk. 500/- per month in financial year 2021-22.
At present there is only one government specialised hospital and 14 private old homes in Bangladesh with accommodation of around 2,000 which is not at all sufficient.
In our country particular health service for elderly persons is not available as it is abroad.
Medical experts say that there is a separate branch of medicine for older people called geriatric medicine but this specialized medical service is hardly available in Bangladesh.
There are only two beds in this name in the Department of Medicine of BSMMU.
However, the BSMMU authorities have almost completed the process of setting up a separate department.
To provide financial security government has introduced pension scheme for all but its benefit will be available after ten years.
It is expected that we shall be able to build a good environment for the elderly persons through combined efforts of all.
(The writer is a former Commissioner
of Taxes.)
