On June 8, several media organisations reported an incident in which an elderly couple in Telangana starved to death after their son and daughter-in-law allegedly denied them food and even drinking water. Nageshwar Reddy and his wife Lakshmi forced the elderly couple to live in a makeshift tent outside the home. The issue came to light only when residents in the area, suspecting the cause of death, approached the police. Nageshwar and Lakshmi were arrested and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Following the incident, officials with the Department of Senior Citizens in Telangana urged senior citizens to reach out to them for help via the toll-free number 14567, a national helpline dedicated for senior citizens. Members of the public can also call the helpline seeking assistance for senior citizens who are in distress. The toll-free service is available from 8 am to 8 pm, all days. The helpline was launched in 2019 by the Department of Senior Citizens, Telangana in partnership with Tata Trusts, through its Elder Spring programme.
In one such call on the helpline this year, the Department officers were able to intervene and assist an 85-year-old man and his 70-year-old wife who were abandoned at the Jangaon district hospital by their sons. The woman had suffered a leg fracture but the sons declined to provide the couple any assistance. Department officials, with assistance from the hospital authorities, reached out to the sons and explained to them that abandoning parents was a violation of the Senior Citizens Rights and Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act (MWPSC) Act, 2007. The elderly woman was then shifted to a private hospital in Siddipet and the sons bore the treatment expenses.
During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the toll-free number received a total of 1,558 calls, of which 555 calls were related to support for groceries, medicines, banking services and others during the lockdown. About 337 calls were seeking ambulance services, oxygen supply information, vaccine registration and hospital bed availability. According to official data, about 116 instances of abuse were reported between March and May 2021 via the toll-free number and 83 calls were appeals to rescue senior citizens.
An officer with the Department of Senior Citizens in Telangana told TNM that they had witnessed several instances during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic where families abandoned elders at hospitals, “We saw a few instances even during the second wave of the pandemic. We transfer the senior citizens to an old age home in such cases,” said the officer who did not wish to be named.
The Senior Citizens Department has also come up with an arrangement for COVID-19 care isolation facility for the elderly at Kukatpally in collaboration with Pain Relief and Palliative Care Society (PRPCS). Senior citizens who have tested positive for coronavirus and have no resources to self-isolate can call the toll-free number to be shifted to the facility at Kukatpally. Officials said that currently there are 20 beds available at this facility.