PROTECTION OF ELDERLY PEOPLE AGAINST CRIME AND SOCIETY

Abstract

With growing liberalism, Capitalism and disintegrating of families’, crimes against the elderly people are increasing at a very rapid rate. From 19.8 million in 1951 to 76 million in 2001 and projections indicate that the number of 60+ in India will increase to 100 million in 2013 and 198 million in 2030. With the steady increase of old persons, the magnitude of their problems is also increasing. Problems manifest in the form of abuse and violence against the elderly. The concept of joint family is taking over the old aged concept of the nuclear family and accordingly size of the family has also decreased from too many people to just the parent and children. The youth generation is able to cope up with the fats moving life but the elderly ones are held back due to shift from traditional to modern society. As the elderly people are the non-working class of the age structure of India, they are thrown out of the mainstream and have no place to go and live a productive life. Due to age factor they are also not being able to work and hence are considered as a liability on the society. Therefore, in the end their vulnerability leads to the increasing crime rates in the old age group. As they are weaker, they become the soft target for crime. The criminals attack these group of people as they easy target. The Government of India incorporated many policies so as to regulate against the unjust behaviour of the youth towards them. The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007 which enumerates a lot of policies which unfortunately look good only on paper and fail to curb the growing marginalization and dangers the old face. Now, this generation instead of labelling the old people as liabilities, should gain real time experience as they have seen the both sides of the picture, both modern and traditional phase of the society. Their knowledge and inputs could be very useful for the generations to come.

This paper aims towards assessing the effectiveness of The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, considering the atrocities the elderly is facing. Further, it will analyse the needs of the people with disabilities in the urban areas and check to scrutinize whether the Act provides for those needs.