Two-day National Seminar on Elderly Wellbeing in India held
Aligarh : Experts and professionals from social defense and social work sectors and faculty members discussed the issues, challenges and prospects in the domain of elderly wellbeing in India in a two-day national Seminar, organised by the Department of Social Work, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in collaboration with National Institute of Social Defense (NISD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India.
In his address, Prof. Mohammad Gulrez, Vice Chancellor, AMU cited the UN report which mentions that the elderly population will be around 20% by the year 2050. He mentioned various issues faced by the elderly population, including Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, prostate and orthopedic problems.
Prof Gulrez urged the students and volunteers to work for this social cause and try to resolve the problems faced by the elderly starting from their homes.
The keynote speaker Prof. CP Singh, Kurukshetra University said that different agencies and countries have different age parameters for persons to consider them old or elderly. Discussing various programmes and policies for the elderly by the Government of India, he said it is upon the youth of the country to treat the elderly with utmost respect and empathy.
Prof. Mirza Asmer Beg, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences talked about the western culture and loneliness of elderly people in the west. He remarked that people get influenced by the western culture even without observing and experiencing it.
Guest of Honour, Mr. Samrat Bandopadhya, Civil Services Officer (Group-A), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India, started his address by quoting Swami Vivekananda, “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.”
He talked about social mobilization, IEC and leveraging the technology for parents and senior citizens.
The other guest of honour, Mr. Prem Poddar from HelpAge India talked about his NGO which was started in the year 1978. He told that HelpAge India works on 4 core programmes, including healthcare, age care and livelihoods, disaster response and advocacy and awareness. He stated that earlier the norm was ‘Working for Elders’, but now the motto is ‘Working with Elders’.
Earlier, Seminar Director, Prof. Naseem Ahmad Khan, Chairman, Department of Social Work welcomed the dignitaries, guests and delegates. He informed that around 300 participants are attending the seminar in offline and online mode.
Prof Anoop Kumar Bhartiya (Lucknow University) and Dr. Tadepally Nagendra Swamy (Telangana) graced the occasion as special guests.
A book of abstracts was released by the Vice-Chancellor and all the dignitaries.
The Vice-Chancellor also released the concept note of the book entitled ‘Socio-Behavioural Techno-Legal Media Dimension: A Managerial Bird’s Eye View’, co-authored by Mr. Samrat Bandopadhyay, Dr. Mohd Arif Khan, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work and Mr. Abdur Rahman Mallick, YP-Law, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India.
Dr. Qurratul Aein Ali, Seminar Convener presented an overview of the seminar.
Co-Director of the seminar Dr. Mohd Tahir proposed a vote of thanks.
Dr. Mohd Arif Khan, Seminar Co-Convener, conducted the whole session.