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.