Improving the Life of Senior Citizens in the Rural Areas

70 per cent (approx.) of Indians live in rural areas, where despite rapid industrialisation, there’s still very less development in terms of lifestyle. 71 per cent of the senior citizens are natives of rural India. In remote village areas, people, especially senior citizens are totally virgin to the sort of life their urban counterparts live. Due to the lack of civic amenities, the rural elderly have to suffer more. Many social work organizations are devoted to these areas in order to improve the quality of life. The rise in population is adding further to the woes. Despite all odds, steady progress is being done for the aged people in villages.

Let us have a look at all those activities:

Creating Awareness

Lack of proper education is still evident in many villages, therefore, it signifies that the right kind of information is not being disseminated to them. Awareness is of utmost importance. Awareness covers a lot of aspects which includes educating about the increasing population and its cons, government schemes and policy for the senior citizens, self-reliance of senior citizens, the role of NGOs in elderly care, old age homes and et al.

Freedom from Isolation

Social isolation is a common thing in rural areas, especially in the cases where an elderly widow(er) has his/her heir go to distant places for work and probably settle there. Thus, a sense of insecurity grows within. This makes them helpless if any ailment occurs as it’s not easy for every rural dweller to commute to cities notably when they have grown old and feeble. In order to avoid such a situation, various NGOs and independent groups are working in sync with the government as well as local bodies to create a safer environment for them. They are working on strategic plans to create the best senior care services which they implement achieve in the villages, creating access to necessary and healthy food, regular availability of medicines and community transport in order for the aged to cover distant places easily.

Employment opportunities

Senior citizens in rural areas who can’t afford to carry on with laborious tasks can now work in different areas where physical effort is not too much of a requirement. Those who have decent education teach in schools or colleges, take up clerical jobs, do accountancy, etc. For those who haven’t earned the school-based education, work in various local institutions or governing bodies where they are employed based on capability. Another option that has opened up job opportunities especially for women is the Anganwadis. There are various functions in an Anganwadi which is mostly related to health care of young children and expecting mothers. Thousands of women all across the country are devoted to Anganwadis which includes a fair amount of aged women too.

Poverty Alleviation

In response to the above point, poverty is a constant predicament in rural areas. Caring for the elderly includes creating parity in income. For someone who doesn’t have kin or doesn’t have a member with an adequate income needs to do keep the resources. For skill-based workers can still manage to find employment opportunities, the unskilled ones are given training for suitable jobs to develop the aptitude to do something new that can earn them a regular income.

These were the major highlights as to how rural development for senior citizens is steadily emerging. Non-profits organisations or charitable institutions are thoroughly keeping up with the Samaritan work of providing health care for old people in rural areas along with skill based training and development.