NGO to honour senior citizens on new year’s eve

NEW DELHI: India Eye International Human Rights Observer (IHRO) will honour senior citizens on the eve of new year in an attempt to recognise their contributions to society.  

An event “Smile @ 60+” has been organised at the Kamani Auditorium in the capital on Monday, 31 December, where eminent senior citizen achievers from various fields will be felicitated, said Rakesh Sharma, Managing Director of India Eye IHRO. Jagadguru Ram Bhadracharya will be the chief guest, while Hridya Narayan Dixit, Speaker, UP Assembly, will be the guest of honour at the event.

Those who will be felicitated during the event include General (retd) J.J. Singh, former Chief of Army (Armed Forces), Aruna Sharma, former IAS officer, Madhav Das Nalapat, editorial director of The Sunday Guardian, Prakash Singh former DGP UP, K.K. Agarwal, cardiologist etc.

After the event, a memorandum will be handed over to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying: “India is a young country of 800 million youth, and 65% of our population is below 35 years of age. Your statement gives a sense of happiness from the fact that we are the youngest country in the world, but on other side of the same statement is the worry that all these young people will be old one day and at that time our country will be the world’s first country to have the largest senior citizen population. Well! That is inevitable. It is important that we need to prepare for it well in advance.”

“According to an estimate, by 2050, the elderly population in our country will be around 25% of the total population. If we assume that by 2050, the population of the country will be 1.5 billion, then the elderly population will be about 400 million. There have been a lot of things done for the elderly. But there is a lot to be done. If steps are not taken in this direction today, tomorrow may be too late,” said Sharma.

Sharma said his organisation will urge the PM to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme for all the elderly people.