Project to provide opportunities for elderly launched

New Delhi, Apr 9: A pilot project 'Eklavya' has been launched to empower elderly people by providing them gainful employment after retirement and increase their involement in the community.

Under the project launched by Agewell Foundation, a consortium of over 1,500 NGOs and 5,000 volunteers dedicated to the welfare of the elderly, retired persons would be enrolled and provided employment as home tutors and accountants in their own localities.

In India there are nearly 77 million senior citizens and their numbers are set to touch 117 million by 2025. This huge reservoir of human resource with skill, experience and time and by gainfully engaging them in employment would not only empower elderly and provide dignity to them but also increase their involvement in the community service. This will also help the society in inculcating moral values of older generations.

The objective of project is to explore avenues for employment for old age people and try to evolve a sense of moral and social responsibility toward senior citizens, said Mr Himanshu Rath, Chairman of Agewell Foundation.

''The initiative of the 'Eklavya' is to change the perception about the old age and bring about a shift from pity and helplessness to self-confidence and dignity of the aged. It will provide older people a platform where they continue to be providers to the society and can pursue their life's passion fully on their own rather then being dependent on others after the retirement,'' he said.

The employment of elderly for giving tution to children of their locality would not only provide students a secure environment of learning at home but also help the inculcate good values of life, he added.

''Parents particularly of young girls find it nearly impossible to arrange for home tutors because as they are not comfortable with young male teachers while lady teachers are not so easily available for home tuitions. So the services of older people will provide a holistic solution to their dilemma,'' he said.

In addition, elderly people having finance and accounts background would be employed for 'Eklavya - Easy Accounts' for helping small shopkeepers, traders and professionals in their locality, Mr Rath said. With this project, parents will get tutors, small traders help and old people gainful engagement to intermingle and become more sensitive towards the needs of each other, he noted.

In addition, Agewell aims to increase the interaction of the seniors with the younger generation to bridge the growing gap of the inter-generational life styles.

With the rise in mortality rates in the country and the increasing population, the need of the hour is healthy utilisation of the existing resources, he said.

The foundation believes that the experience gained by our seniors can be used to its utmost by providing the required platform. The current percentage of persons above the age of 60 in our total population has seen a steady rise from 5.1 per cent in 1901 to 6.8 per cent in 2001 and is expected to reach 8.9 per cent in 2016.

Parents seeking home tuitions for their kids and entrepreneurs or shopkeepers have to register with Agewell while retired people should submit their bio-data for opportunities through Agewell. These services are provided free of cost and the helpline numbers are 29836486 and 29840484 while email address is [email protected].

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UNI AJ MA RN1030