Govt must protect senior citizens

Updated: 2011-12-22 08:40

(China Daily)

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Recent years have seen an increase in frauds targeting senor citizens, who have been duped into buying substandard goods at high prices. There have even been family property disputes, in which nannies have stepped in to help sort out cases where children and parents are not on talking or negotiating terms. The reasons why such things are happening may be quite complicated, but most people seem, perhaps surprisingly, to agree that senior citizens - some of whose behavior might seem abnormal - are badly in need of protection, according to an article on eastday.com. Excerpts:

An analysis of incidents targeting senior citizens shows they have fallen prey to swindlers because they are in search of a healthy life, want to overcome their loneliness and/or are looking for more information to lead a better life.

This is not surprising, for the elderly - not unlike women who wish for lasting youth - seek a long and healthy life, free of medical and other age-related complications.

Since there is no effective way to alleviate their anxieties, senior citizens tend to fall prey to impractical ideas. They try to find other, perhaps easier, ways to overcome their anxieties and tension.

Since the number of senior citizens in China has been rising, more old people are becoming victims of fraudsters.

This is not only affecting the interests of a group of people that need the greatest care - not least because it is worried about the future of its grown-up children - but also harming the effectiveness of public security. Such people, needless to say, require the protection from the country's related authorities.

The move to protect them should start by intensifying enforcement efforts and cracking down on frauds targeting senior citizens. For example, the government should stipulate that without the children's presence and signature(s), a dispute between/among parents and their offspring should not be disposed of and an insurance company that tries to push such a case through a court of law to clear the claims should necessarily lose its appeal.

Organizations such as neighborhood committees should take measures to provide greater protection to the elderly. Besides, nonprofit organizations should be made to provide services specific to the needs of senior citizens whose children have dumped them.

An aging population is a great challenge for China, especially in its initial stages. To meet this challenge, the government, the people - families, communities and social groups - and all sectors of society have to make joint efforts to work out a foolproof mechanism.

(China Daily 12/22/2011 page9)