Varied activities to mark Int’l Week of Older Persons

With a theme “Leaving no one behind: Promoting society for all”, the district health department comprising all community health centres (CHC) and primary health centres (PHC) is observing International Week of Older Persons in the first week of October.

Though the week is full of gazette holidays, the health department has imposed duties to observe activities to make senior citizens a part of the society.

The International Day for Older Persons is celebrated on October 1 every year but this year, the state department of health and family welfare has issued notices to all civil surgeons to observe week-long activities at PHCs, CHCs and district level, and send reports with all details and pictures to the department.

“A letter was also sent to all senior medical officers by the health department, which was received on October 1, thus the day could not be utilised for the purpose. Though October 2,3, 5, and 6 are holidays, the department’s main focus is to organise more and more events on October 4 and October 7,” said a health official.

Dr KS Saini, assistant civil surg eon, Ludhiana, said, “Though the week is full of gazette holidays and festivals, we have imposed duties in a manner so that activities assigned could be performed even during holidays, and we can reach to more and more old people.” He also added that October 4 and 7 would be utilised fully.

Dr PS Sidhu, senior medical officer (SMO), CHC Sahnewal said, “We keep on sending our teams to old-age home in Malerkotla. But as the week is especially marked for oldage people, we are planning to organise different programmes including, health checkups and fitness sessions.”

NEED TO OBSERVE

In India, the number of persons above the age of 60 has increased from 2 crore in 1951 to over 7.6 crore in 2001. According to estimated projections, elderly population will increase to 12% of the total population by 2025, 8-10% of which are estimated to be bedridden requiring utmost care, which is the reason the concept of active and healthy ageing needs to be promoted.'