GURUGRAM: Despite several measures taken by the Gurugram district adminis- tration for the welfare of the elderly, the lockdown has now begun to take its toll on the senior citizens. The challenges only increases for septuage- narians and octogenarians whose children are not staying with them.
Due to lack of technological knowledge, most of the elderly are not able to apply for the movement passes man-dated by the district authori-ties for any movement in the city. The 21-days lockdown as also adversely affected the schedule of the elderly patients who have to visit the hospi-tals for their medical processes and purchasing of medicines.
Taking cognisance of the health of the elderly, the dis- trict administration has made sure that the domestic help, drivers and private nurses are exempted from the lockdown. However, complaints of delay of delivering the passes to these workers have resulted in the senior citizens not get-ting timely help.
Most of the volunteers working on the level of resi- dential societies are trying to get the details for the elderly and providing them with essential services like masks and sanitisers and sharing the numbers of doctors who are providing consultation in their field of expertise. Acknowledging the chal-lenges faced by the senior citizens, the Gurugram District Commissioner said, "Taking care of the senior citizens has been one of our major con-cerns. It is for this purpose we have ensured that the domestic helpers are exempted from the lockdown. On the com- plaints of some of the domestic help not getting the movement passes, ur teams have recti- ied most of the issues." In addition to the prevail- ing difficulties, there is also challenge of ensuring bet- ter mental health of the senior citizens who are restricted to staying indoors.