Lok Sabha polls 2014: Parties wooing youth, but elderly falling off their radar

NEW DELHI: Bent on wooing young voters, political parties haven't devoted much thought to the city's 11 lakh senior citizens — 9% of the electorate. Many senior citizens who had asked parties to hear them and involve them in planning say the promises made in manifestos are election staples.

J R Gupta, president, Senior Citizens Council of Delhi, said parties have been promising old-age homes and financial empowerment for years but nothing has materialized. "After three assembly elections and as many general elections, there are only three government-run old-age homes in the capital," said Gupta, adding that Congress, BJP and AAP alike ignored the demands senior citizens have been raising through various representative bodies.

"For the past 15 years, we have been demanding the implementation of the National Policy for Senior Citizens. The policy was first notified by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, and last amended in 2011, but no party has yet implemented this crucial policy that would give us the dignity we demand," Gupta said.

Some senior citizens complained that even policy makers have turned apathetic to the elderly. "DDA, which is controlled by the central ministry of urban development, chose to revise its lift policy last month and made it mandatory for those willing to install lifts in their buildings to seek permission from the ground-floor flat owners. Whatever the reason, it has left the senior citizens residing on upper floors at the mercy of uncooperative ground-floor owners," said R K Sarin, a senior citizen and RWA member in Kalkaji.