By Satish Nandgaonkar
The Times of India, January 25, 2000

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Police Commissioner Ronnie Mendonca on Saturday stated that a special cell will be started by the Mumbai Police by March end to cater exclusively to Elder Abuse cases. The cell will deal with cases pertaining to various forms of abuse and will be the third such cell to be launched by the police department, apart from the ones already established for children, and women.

Mendonca was among the 24 experts present at the meeting convened by Bombay Times-outrEACH to seek positive and concrete solutions to curb elder abuse. The special cell is one of the 10 commitments made by the panel at the end of an almost two-hour brain-storming session, which discussed various aspects of Elder Abuse. The commitments were the highlight of the meeting and were made specifically to ensure that the discussions do not merely remain in the realm on words and get translated into action.

Mendonca congratulated the Bombay Times-outrEACH initiative for taking the lead in trying to curb Elder Abuse. He narrated the tragedy of the elderly Gupte couple where one of them was completely bedridden, and spent two days with the decomposed corpse of the other in their flat. The couple lived alone and nobody from the housing society visited them for two days until the decomposed body began stinking.

"It is important that the other housing society residents visit the elderly people in the society every week, if only to check on whether they need any assistance," he said.

 The special cell will be part of the social service branch, and will work in collaboration with professional counselors and NGOs. The cell will intervene in cases where Elder Abuse is reported. When queried as to whether the cell would necessarily require a complaint from the abuse victim in order to initiate legal intervention, Mendonca categorically said, "Information is necessary in order for us to intervene; though not necessarily a complaint."

Also present at the meeting were family court lawyer Flavia Agnes of Majlis; PJ Verghese of Helpage India, TISS social scientist Rosamma Veedon who has done some research on Elder Abuse, TV Ramchandani and Dinesh Ahir of AGNI, Sonal Shukla of Vacha; Alpa Desai of Family Welfare Agency; Dr. Vithal Prabhu, sexologist, Dr. Rajesh Parikh, neuropsychiatrist from Jaslok Hospital; CL Savara of Indian Federation on Ageing; Dr.V Subramanium, IAS and Social Security Foundation; Pratima Umarji, Secretary of State Law, Judiciary and Parliamentary Affairs Department; Amit Desai, criminal lawyer; Senior Inspector Shirish Inamdar, Social Service Branch of City Police; Anjali Raina, banker; and Ram Maheshwary, General Manager of Bennett and Coleman Ltd.

The outrEACH team along with citizens and volunteers Gaitonde, Balsaver and Malti Venkatesham were present at the meeting.

Dr. Rajesh Parikh pointed out that the issue of Elder Abuse was essentially an issue of cultural denial, and that this denial needed to be dispelled. Senior Inspector Shirish Inamdar, who attended the meeting on behalf of Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) D. Sivanandhan, informed that the Mumbai Police had long identified Elder Abuse as a social problem, and the department had already undertaken sensitisation programmes in all four regions in the city. Sonal Shukla pointed out that a differentiation between abused men and women on gender grounds was essential, since women were more vulnerable to the problem of abuse on account of their gender.

It was also decided to form a core group comprising NGOs like Helpage India, TISS, outrEACH, Majlis and AGNI, along with ex-officio members like the municipal commissioner, police commissioners and others.

Bombay Times and Majlis, plan to publish a handbook on Elder Abuse in March 2000, to create more awareness about the issue. AGNI, which actively participated in the Orissa cyclone relief work, will network with over 70 organisations in 12 city zones, 73 police stations, citizens' groups and the Advanced Locality Management groups, to catalyse the initiative. outrEACH plans to make publicity spots for television on Elder Abuse, in addition to the documentary which it was originally set up to work on. Family Welfare Agency will provide day care centres for abandoned or neglected elders. Helpage India, which runs over 20 mobile health care centres, plans to provide general health care to the elderly. The centres will not undertake tests or perform surgery, Verghese said that the elderly with health problems could contact the Helpage helpline.

Majlis assured that it would provide legal training to volunteers based on the handbook, after it is published. Sonal Shukla said that her organisation would soon publish a compilation of stories about the issue. Lawyer Amit Desai, suggested that the delegation could approach the chief metropolitan magistrate with a demand to set up a special court to try cases of Elder Abuse which would expedite legal intervention.