International Older Persons Day - IDOP - Hyderabad HelpAge 2017

IDOP in Hyderabad – HelpAge India Meeting – 1^st Oct 2017

As usual HelpAge India AP/TS regional office celebrated International Day of Older Persons on  1^st October 2017 in Hyderabad.

Sri Raza Mohamad, Chief of HelpAge AP/TS, welcomed all. There were several senior citizens SHG members from Chottu Uppal, Patancheru, Shamshabad etc representing rural poor. He  explained the activities of HelpAge in protecting respect of elders through SAVE program – intergenerational sensitization of school children.

Sri Uppula Gopala Rao said that State Govt must implement NPOP & MWPSCA properly. Food, respect, money should be provided to all indigent senior citizens. He also spoke about donations he made to Voice of Senior Citizens – Monthly, HelpAge etc.

Sri SN Reddy Secretary of Telangana Recognized School Mgmt Association assured full support to HelpAge in sensitizing school children in caring for the elderly in 12000 schools, under his purview.

Sri BR Madhusudhan Rao, Member Secretary Telangana State Legal Services Authority was the chief Guest.  TSLSA offers free legal help to senior citizens through hundreds of para-legal volunteers and service minded advocates. Their Helpline number is 151500, toll free.  Several cases of Elder Abuse, Neglect and victimization, learnt through newspapers, have been taken up for mediation, counseling and settling issues.

Sri G Muralidhar, Chief Mentor Akshara, Guest of Honour for the day, said that basic needs of the elderly  must be met by the govt. He advised senior citizens to go ahead and enjoy life without postponing their desires or wishes; they should not transfer property to children when alive; be actively engaged with grand children friend etc.

It is a pity that none of the speakers touched the theme for IDOP viz Fighting Ageism, though every participant was given a badge reminding us of the theme for the year!

In the next part of the meeting several senior citizens were honored -  all members of State Senior Citizens Council, those who won sports competitions held by HelpAge.  Some, whose names I remember are:   Smt Nagachandrika Devi, Sri P Kishan Rao, Sri Sridhar, Dr G Nageshwar Rao, Sri Uppula Gopala Rao, Sri Peddi Sudhakar, Sri Prabhakar etc. I missed being felicitated,   as I had to leave early due to another urgent engagement, I learnt later on.

Lunch packets, water, cool drinks, biscuits etc were distributed to all.  Efforts put in to celebrate International Older Persons day yielded satisfaction to all – elderly participants, speakers, NGOs, SCAs, media etc.

New APP for Senior Citizens from HelpAge India

Here is an announcement on a New APP from HelpAge India for Senior Citizens.

Those who have used it may give comments here.

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Over the past few years HelpAge India have been conducting surveys trying to assess the extent, impact of Elder Abuse and create awareness on the issue. Last year we took on the youth perspective. This year a Mobile App called the ‘HelpAge SOS’ App designed to help not just the victims of Elder Abuse, but also enable others – neighbors, friends, family and Samaritans access help easily.

The App will be launched on the morning of  Tuesday, June 14, 2016 to mark WEAAD.

Functioning of the HelpAge SOS App

·         The one-touch SOS button will connect to the local HelpAge India Elder Helpline. The Helpline staff will not just offer help and rescue, but also in cases required, connect to the Police, Hospitals, Old Age Homes and experts like Lawyers and Counselors.

·         The App will offer ready access to information critical for elders on - Elder Abuse, legal rights, entitlements from the Govt., healthcare and maintenance tips, other schemes and facilities such as reverse mortgage, health insurance, pensions etc.

·         The third feature would be information on market discounts available for senior citizens especially on the purchase of medicines, use of hospitals, path labs etc. This information will be city wise and GPS driven.

To begin with, the App will be in English & Hindi on Android platform; local languages will be attempted later. Other platforms will be added later.

Please download the App from Google Play Store or use this link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.folder.HelpAgeSOS&hl=en

With regards,

BIJU MATHEW

Director & State Head (Kerala)

www.helpageindia.org

Mob : +91 9447209678

Free or concessional Legal Advice for senior citizens

Free  or Concessional Legal Advice for Senior citizens

Most of you know that in Hyderabad free legal advice is available from the Association of Senior Citizens of Hyderabad. Sri Manoj Kumar (mobile 8801681999), AP High Court Advocate has been kind enough to make himself available for free consultation on every fourth Tuesday of the month at the association's Day Care Center from 3:00pm to 4:30 pm. As Fourth Tuesday is a regular meeting when an external expert speaks, many members will anyhow be coming to DCC. Non-members are also welcome as long as they are senior citizens.

Establishment of permanent Lok Adalat exclusively meant for older persons in AP has been explained earlier.

LOk Adalats meeting on specially specified dates in Haryana have been announced just now.

Now we are happy to add such resources from HelpAge India in New Delhi area.

HelpAge India has empanelled two advocates to assist the elderly on writing of wills and other legal matters–either pro bono or at reduced rates. 

Following are the details of the empanelled advocates:

Ms. Meeta Chaudhury B-223 A, FF, Greater Kailash- I New Delhi – 110048 Email: meeta.chaudhury@gmail.com Phone: 9968215981

Ms. Anisha Gupta

435 GF, Jungpura Extension,

Main Mathura Road,New Delhi

Email: anishaadv@gmail.com

Phone: 9873333620, 9312833620

Lawyer’s Chamber No. 273

Delhi High Court, New Delhi

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Awareness Workshop on Reverse Mortgage

HelpAge conducts Awareness program on Reverse Mortgage Loans (RML)

There was an awareness workshop conducted by HelpAge Hyderabad in Belson Taj on 30^th November 2011. Sri Ch Parameshawar Reddy, President of APSCCON; Dr Rao Chelikani Hon President of FAPSCO;  Sri S Dass Regional Head, HelpAge, Hyderabad; Sri Harwinder Bakshi, Director HelpAge Delhi; Sri Rajmohan Managing Director NHB were on the dais.

Sri Prabhu from NHB gave a PowerPoint presentation on basics of RML and RMLeA, overview, eligibility, purpose, differences between RML and RMLeA, likely (typical) sums that can be expected as monthly loan for different age groups etc were explained. Many doubts were clarified with this presentation alone. Limitations of RML and how they have been removed in RMLeA were made clear.

Sri Parameshwar Reddy mentioned that the initial charges by way of Service charge, processing fee registration charges etc amounted a big sum and ways to reduce this burden must be explored. Sri Rao Chelikani said the mindset of seniors must change: most people would rather suffer financially rather than ask their children to  redeem the house property by clearing any loan taken by them. He also spoke about the system prevalent in European countries where a notary brings the owner of the house (senior citizen) and the buyer together without an intermediary like a bank. The owner and buyer enter into an agreement – buyer gives a loan in monthly installments and agrees to take possession of the property after the demise of the owner. Such an agreement is registered by the notary who verifies all the documents and a permanent record is kept.  As the intermediary is absent, both buyer and seller benefit. Sri Harvinder Bakshi limited himself to talking about advocacy efforts of HelpAge especially in the areas like  NPOP, Financial schemes for elders, MWPSCA etc. There were many doubts and suggestions from the audience, fielded effectively by the chief guest Sri Rajmohan from NHB He clarified the role of NHB and said that they have no direct control over administrative matters of banks offering RML products. He agreed to a suggestion that as banks are by far apathetic and insensitive to elders' requirements, more Housing Finance Institutions may be encouraged to enter the arena.  He also received a list of suggestions sent by the president of AISCCON for probable positive action. It was comforting to learn that NHB conducts sensitization programs for banks also. As RMLeA monthly pay outs in fact annuity payments, Income Tax on it can not be avoided as of now. IF NHB succeeds in removing this major hurdle, everyone would opt for RMLeA only.

I liked the program for its uptodate content, clarifications offered and of course for the tasty high-tea.

Even in the Elders Mela conducted recently in Hyderabad, stalls offering RMLeA were misleading visitors saying that no income Tax will be levied on monthly pay outs! Under such circumstances, seminars like these are most useful and essential. Some important phone numbers are: Sri Lakshiminarayana 9885833236; Arunodayakunar 9849411141; NHB Helpline 1800 115 432 ; Harmony HelLine: 1800 100 1111; hYderabad RML Helpline: 94412 84866.

Sri C Satyanarayana, Counselor handling RLM HelpDesk in HelpAge Hyderabad proposed a vote of Thanks.

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Dr P Vyasamoorthy, 30 Gruhalakshmi Colony Secunderabad 500015 Ph 040-27846631 / 9490804278.My blog: http://vyasa-kaaranam-ketkadey.blogspot.com/

How many Old Age Homes are there in India?

I have compiled the data from HelpAge Directory 2009
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SN	State / UT	Numb OAH
1	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	0
2	Andhra Pradesh	114
3	Aru0chal Pradesh	0
4	Assam	16
5	Bihar	1
6	Chandigarh	8
7	Chhattisgarh	2
8	Dadra and 0gar Haveli	0
9	Daman and Diu	0
10	Delhi	36
11	Goa	25
12	Gujarat	77
13	Haryana	12
14	Himachal Pradesh	6
15	Jammu and Kashmir	5
16	Jharkhand	1
17	Kar0taka	91
18	Kerala	182
19	Lakshadweep	0
20	Madhya Pradesh	16
21	Maharashtra	133
22	Manipur	7
23	Meghalaya	1
24	Mizoram	0
25	Nagaland	0
26	Orissa	38
27	Puducherry	3
28	Punjab	12
29	Rajasthan	12
30	Sikkim	0
31	Tamil 0du	251
32	Tripura	6
33	Uttar Pradesh	28
34	Uttarakhand	8
35	West Bengal	164
	Total	1508

Comments: See how the OAHs are unevenly distributed. Small UTs like Goa and Delhi have 25 and 36 OAHs; Large States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have just 28 and 16 OAHs; Bihar, known as a Bhimary state, has only one! Southern states fare much better having an average of 135 per state. Tamilnadu (and not Kerala) tops the list with 251 OAHs but nearly half of them have not furnished any details which makes one guess that most of them are only on paper. Similar is the case with West Bengal, where out of 164 OAHs details of 115 are not known). Zero in the table should actually be read as “Not known” or Not available.

Do you know of any studies that assess the requirement of old age homes in India?

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Vyasamoorthy

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/cv7a