IHRO will greet New Year with senior citizens
When most of Delhi’s youngsters will be busy celebrating New Year’s Eve, Eye International Human Rights Observer (IHRO), a non-profit organisation has cahlked out a very different plan to usher in the New Year.
Like previous years, this year again the IHRO will organise an event with a view to recognise the contributions of senior citizens in society.
Themed as “Smile@ 60 plus”, the event will be held at Kamani Auditorium in the national capital on Sunday.
Thousands of senior citizens will be given opportunities to share the memorable and joyful moments of their lives. A range of cultural performances will be part of the event.
Rakesh Sharma, Managing Director of India Eye IHRO said, “The primary objective of organising this event is to highlight the problems faced by senior citizens in the country. These days, when the country’s economy is growing on a fast pace, a greater chunk of our senior citizens are worried about social, financial, emotional, and medical security.”
“With the degeneration of social value, today sizable populations of elderly people are forced to live a secluded life. The growing numbers of old age homes are also telling the story of degeneration in society. Imagine the plight of one billion senior citizens who live without any social, medical, emotional, financial or family security. I think we owe a lot to them and we must recognise their contribution in our life,” Sharma added.
Dr Karan Singh will be the chief guest at the event.
Former Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, former Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi, former Delhi Police Commissioner Ajay Raj Sharma, H.K. Dua, Padma Sachdev, Jatin Dass and Sonal Man Singh, among others will attend the event. The proposed installation of digital point of sale (POSS), a machine which keeps electronic records of transactions to make the country’s ration system leak-proof, is still lagging behind the target as the performance on this direction of several states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal is abysmal, says the data of the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution (MFPD).
According to the data of the MFPD, out of the 5.83 lakh subsidised ration shops, so far only 2.27 lakh shops have been equipped with the POSS.
The linking of Aadhaar to ration card is also going slow in many states. “Despite several deadlines getting lapsed, many states are still far behind in the linking of the ration system with Aadhaar numbers and so far, only 70% ration cards have been linked to the Aadhaar numbers,” a senior official of the MFPD told The Sunday Guardian.
Activists have alleged that the state government is not working as an enabler in celling the ration cards and terming them fake. This is preventing the poor from availing grains and is unethical,” Nresh Meena, professor of Rajasthan University, who is also linked with the right to food campaign, said.
I n O c t o b e r 2 0 1 7, an 11- year- old girl i n Jharkhand’s Simdega district died of starvation, allegedly because her family’s ration card was cancelled