The Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF) has urged the government to take effective steps to implement the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, in the State.
Addressing presspersons here recently, Ravindranath Shanbhag, president of HRPF, said that though the Act had been passed eight years ago, its implementation in the State had not been proper. He also released a letter he had written in this regard to the Women and Child Welfare Minister Umashree.
He said that 80-year old Savitriamma from Udupi had got back her house due to the efforts of HRPF last year. Once this news got publicised, as many as 192 senior citizens from 12 districts in the State had approached the HRPF complaining of ill treatment and/or cheating by their close family members.
The HRPF had solved some of these problems through mediation between parents and their children. It had also approached the tribunals under Assistant Commissioners in some other cases under the Act, he said.
The government should take more measures not just to publicise the Act as it would benfit the senior citizens immensely. “So far, the government has failed to give adequate publicity to the Act,” Dr. Shanbhag said.
