Homes For Seniors

PASSING through the so-called modernisation phase, Nepal is now witness to its traditional family system disintegrating. More and more Nepalese homes are going nuclear. There was a time when small family units were rare. Everybody lived together. Being old didn’t translate into solitary existence. Grandparents looked after grandchildren who found in the former a good company. Grandparents for their part thus did not have to grapple with loneliness and at the same time found themselves contributing to strengthening the family bond. The middle generation found solace in the fact that their children derived growing-up support from both their parents and their grandparents. All this is fast disappearing. With the headlong pursuit for materialism, many in the present generation are abandoning the age-old, time-tested family structure. In the process, parents are being abandoned. A visit to homes for the old like Pashupati Bridhashram in Kathmandu reveal how even reasonably well-off children have no qualms about throwing their parents out in the streets. There are cases of parents being tricked into handing over their property to their children and then left to fend for themselves. So, the Neaplese society is seeing more helpless senior citizens—from all levels of social strata—who have nowhere to turn to. But, despite the fact that abandoned senior citizens are a growing fact of our social life, somehow the state has not bothered much to build a social security net that would prevent the senior citizens from falling into a life of neglect. One place the helpless elders could turn to would be old citizens’ homes. But the apathy of the state, non-governmental organisations and the society at large also manifests itself in the lack of attention to building senior citizens’ homes. The opening of a 16-room Senior Citizens’ Home in Kitani of Godavari VDC, Lalitpur district, thus, deserves note. The agencies behind the initiative, Patan Rotary Club and Foerderkireis Hilfe fur Nepal, a German organisation, must be applauded. The home can accommodate 32 elderly—two persons to a room. Senior citizens above the age of 65 can make it their home which will also have health services. Forty per cent of the residents of the home will be those who can afford to pay and sixty per cent of the beds are set aside for those who cannot pay. While this deserves pats on the back, it is to be hoped that this would also inspire other non-governmental organisations and agencies to build similar homes where senior citizens of the country, who are driven to homelessness or helplessness by circumstances or callous treatment by their own kith and kin, get some minimum care.

Preventing Fire

THAT the entire countryside, despite the occasional thunder-showers, is getting drier by the day can be witnessed from the gradual drying up of the water sources such as springs, streams and wells.

The drying up of the countryside, especially at this time of the year, has to do with the yearly seasonal cycle. We are presently experiencing a dry spell that normally lasts for about two and a half months. From past experiences, we also know that the long dry season is also a harbinger of some bad tidings, particularly of droughts and wildfires. More so of the latter, since the countryside will be practically wilting under the relentless rays of the summer sun. With the entire countryside parched up, the slightest carelessness on the part of the countrymen in extinguishing their hearths or even match sticks could ignite a fire. Since the entire countryside is tinder dry, such a fire, within a few minutes, could start raging out of control. In other words, it becomes a wildfire that, if not put out in time, could consume every living and non-living thing in its path. The end result: loss of precious lives and properties worth millions of rupees.

Fire, as all know, is a good servant but a bad master. Once it goes out of control, it does not differentiate between the rich and the poor, the urbanites and the rural folks and the palatial palaces or the hovels made of straw and bamboo mats. Hence, the only way out to ensure that a fire does not assume the role of the master but remains a good servant is for people from all walks of life to be ever prepared and vigilant. Towards this end, both the urbanites and the rural folks should not only be taught fire preventive measures but also the ways and means to fight it as and when it does break out in their locality. The entire fire-fighting units throughout the nation should also be put on red alert to ensure their prompt response to any call for help to put out the fires. Since the lack of roads could prevent the fire-engines from coming to the rescue of the rural folks, it looks to reason for the concerned authorities and the local people’s representatives to work together to encourage the rural folks to form their own fire-fighting committees, specially during the dry spell that sweeps over the country at this time of the years.