Inclusive and age-friendly
MOHAMMED Hassan Khan, a member of the National Council of Older Persons and former director of the Fiji Council of Social Services believes older persons are being used as a political expediency with nothing concrete done for their welfare in Fiji.
It’s a sentiment that should attract attention.
Mr Khan, who is also a Pearce Home Trust chairman, was a guest on The Lens@177, a Fiji Times special program.
“They just go down to Golden Age Home and dance with the older persons. No, dancing with the older persons is not doing anything for them. You’re not taking them out of loneliness and poverty so these are the things that matter to the older persons,” he pointed out.
In his message during this year’s International Day of Older Persons, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged people to focus on the resilience of the more than one billion older women and men in a changing world.
The past years had witnessed dramatic upheavals, he said, and older people often found themselves at the epicenter of crises.
Older people, he said, were particularly vulnerable to a range of challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, proliferating conflicts, and growing poverty.
Yet in the face of these threats, older people, he said, have continued to inspire others with their remarkable resilience.
By 2030, he said, 1.4 billion people would be at least 60 years old.
We have a challenge, he said, as societies and as the global community, to address the challenges of longevity – and unleash its potential.
He called for the promotion of the social, economic, and political inclusion of all people at all ages.
He called for lifelong learning, strong social protection, accessible quality long-term health care, bridging the digital divide, intergenerational support, dignity and respect.
He called for more inclusive and age-friendly societies and a more resilient world.
On the home front, Mr Khan speaks of his frustration that not enough is being done for older people.
He talks about acts that were “upsetting, laughable and hypocrisy of first grade”.
He wants to see the elderly treated with dignity and respect.
“That is the biggest poverty of this nation that you do not provide the dignity, the respect for older persons and this needs to be addressed at all levels.”
Mr Khan made some powerful comments that will make us think about how our elderly are faring.
Our challenge moving forward is to understand and appreciate the demands and expectations of our elderly, and how we can empower them to be independent, to be an integral part of society; how we care for them, assisting them to pursue opportunities and have access to resources, and how we help them live in dignity and security, and be free of exploitation and physical and mental abuse. These are all part of the UN Principles for Older Persons.
As Mr Guterres said, let’s be more inclusive and agefriendly! Something for aspiring politicians to think about as we count down to the General Election on December 14.