For senior citizens, cops are friends, gossip companions
SAFETY FIRST Due to regular contact, beat officers find themselves slowly becoming a part of the lives of elderly
NEW DELHI: Constable Ramavtar Meena begins looking around sheepishly the moment he spots 73-year-old Sunita Bhasin in her little garden outside her ground floor apartment in south Delhi’s Sukhdev Vihar. The policeman had not visited the elderly woman for over a month and she was not going to take it kindly.
“I needed medicines, but you were not there,” a frail Bhasin shoots off, almost as if she was waiting for the opportunity. Meena fumbles while trying to explain his absence, but Bhasin knows she has him on the tenterhook. “In your absence, I called the other beat policeman. He was prompt,” she softly hints at the competition.
It was one of those rare occasions when Meena was not available at Bhasin’s call. Be it for purchasing medicines, repairing a leaking pipeline or fixing her landline phone, Meena has been just a call away. A smiling Bhasin nods forgivingly.
As the Delhi Police looks to make the city safer for its elderly, hundreds of constables and head constables like Meena are running errands and serving as “gossip companions” for the thousands of senior citizens who live alone in the affluent colonies of the national capital.
Last year, the police made 1,600 visits to senior citizens’ homes and dialled them over 1,100 times daily on an average. The result shows in the crime figures. From 123 to 86, there was a 30% decline in crimes against the senior citizens between 2016 and 2017.
Each police station maintains a record of senior citizens living alone and contacts of their relatives and domestic helps. New Friends Colony and Nizamuddin police stations, for example, have 256 and 102 senior citizens respectively who are regularly visited by the police. Overall, Delhi has Police visits to senior citizens’ homes Phone calls made by police to senior citizens
Identity cards issued to senior citizens
Complaints made by senior citizens
Distress calls attended
Security audits done of senior citizens' homes 32,478 senior citizens who have been registered with the police. Most of them live alone.
Police say it is mainly the elders living in posh neighbourhoods who are on the radar of criminals. “Those in the middle or lower economic neighbourhoods have their families and neighbours watching over them,” explains Chinmoy Biswal, DCP (southeast). “The uppermiddle classes in south Delhi have many senior citizens living alone as their children are settled abroad or in other cities. Criminals see them as easy targets.”
In November last year, a 75-year-old woman was tied up, robbed and murdered at her home in Malviya Nagar. The widow’s four children live away. The local police had recounted how she would frequently call the beat constable and even land at the local police station with “trivial complaints”.
In December, a 77-year-old woman registered with the Delhi Police’s senior citizen cell, was found dead with a head injury in Greater Kailash, prompting suspicion that she may have been robbed and killed.
As the beat police officers attempt to prevent such incidents and enter the personal lives of the senior citizens during their frequent visits, they turn into family. Head constable Akhilesh Atri and constable Rajesh know exactly which brand of biscuits they would be offered by 77-yearold Veena Dev, a widow living alone in East Nizamuddin.
“She pours her heart out to me whenever I visit her and won’t let me leave until I have eaten. So, I try to visit her when I have ample time at hand and my stomach’s empty,” says Atri.
Dev says she has reasons to treat Atri and Rajesh as her “children”. A few weeks ago, she had spotted two “suspicious-looking strangers” loitering outside her home. She immediately dialled Atri whose number was fed in her phone. “Within minutes, all the six gates of this neighbourhood were locked and two local men sent to ensure my safety,” recounts Dev with affection.
“I know that Atri or Rajesh will be here in minutes anytime of the day or night I call them. But I trouble them only when I really sense danger,” says Dev.
Rajesh, who also takes time out to attend the birthday celebrations of all senior citizens whose well being is assigned to him and won’t mind the extra work. “I listen to their rants about their domestic helps. They need to vent out to feel safe,” Rajesh says.
Elsewhere, in the same neighbourhood, constable Rajesh visits Kimtilal Sharma, an architect who is now bedridden. Rajesh offers to be at his doorstep in case he ever receives a courier. “Don’t open the door to strangers. You just have to call me and I will be here,” Rajesh tells Sharma, repeating his own name so that the 79-year-old man does not forget if he needs to call him.
While these are regular tasks, the beat officers say many senior citizens get too demanding. “They want us to accompany them to hospital or the bank. They know they will get to jump the queue if accompanied by a policeman. Our other work and tasks go for a toss,” says another constable who didn’t wished to be identified.
Constable Meena says he has changed bulbs, rearranged the furniture, got clothes ironed and visited the post office for many of the 49 senior citizens under his watch. Often, he gets drawn into lengthy conversations and learns their deepest secrets. “Sometimes, they call me in the middle of the night to get a wrongly-parked car removed. Once, two elders got into a silly fight among themselves and both called me to intervene. It was a tricky situation,” says Meena.
DCP Biswal says police’s activities have caused the relatives of many senior citizens to look the other way. “Sometimes when the elderly fall ill, their relatives simply call the beat officer instead of paying a personal visit. But we know that our visible presence will keep criminals away,” says Biswal.
The uppermiddle classes in south Delhi have many senior citizens living alone as their children are settled abroad or in other Indian cities. Criminals see them as easy targets.