'Sparsho' extends helping hand to the elderly

Kolkata: The East Midnapore district police has introduced a project called "Sparsho" to provide all sorts of assistance to elderly people, mainly those who have no one to look after.

It may be mentioned that a few years ago, Kolkata Police had initiated project "Pranam" with the same motive.

The top brass of police in East Midnapore district have felt the need of the project, as a study of crime records revealed that there were cases in which elderly people were victimised as they had no one to provide necessary assistance at the time of any emergency.

The police have already started preparing a database containing names of such elderly people all across the district. Respective police stations have been given the responsibility of preparing the database and finally all the data will be compiled into one, that will be available with the headquarters of district police.

There will be civic volunteers, who will be having the responsibility of looking after some of the elderly people in an area. A police officer will be supervising the work of the civic volunteers.

All the members of project "Sparsho" will be provided a card containing a phone number, on which they can contact and convey a message at the time of any emergency. At the same time, it is also the duty of the civic volunteers to maintain a regular touch with the elderly people.

V Solomon Nesakumar, superintendent of police of East Midnapore district, said "We have gone through the data related to different sorts of crime on elderly people and found that the project to provide assistance to elderly people need to be introduced in the district."

It has been learnt that while going through the previous crime records, police have found that there was an incident in the district in which an elderly couple was murdered and valuables were looted from their house.

So without any further delay, the top brass of police have decided to engage dedicated civic volunteers to provide assistance to elderly people.

The senior police officers consider that besides ensuring security and safety of the elderly people, the initiative will also be helpful for them in case they fall ill or pass through a difficult situation.

"Moreover, they will also feel confident, knowing that there is someone to look after them," the police officer said.