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The Orissa High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the State Government over non-implementation of the provisions under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.
Acting on a writ petition filed by a senior citizen Tarini Charan Padhy of Nabarangpur, the division bench of Chief Justice AK Goel and Justice AK Ratha has directed the State to file response within four weeks.
The petitioner drew the attention of the Court to the problems and sufferings of the elderly population in the State due to non-implementation of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act in the State.
The Act while mandating establishment of old age homes, providing special beds and wards for senior citizens in healthcare centres along with facilities for their treatment has stipulated constitution of Tribunals to deal with the problems and complaints of the elderly. They should be treated with respect.
It is a matter of grave concern that even after a lapse of five years, the State Government has not even moved to frame the rules for the act nor taken any steps to implement the provisions. Despite repeated appeals to the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, and other Government authorities no action has been taken, Padhy alleged. The petitioner submitted that the population of senior citizens in India is steadily on the rise and projected to grow faster in the coming years.Senior citizens constitute 8.5 per cent of the population at present in State, however, it is more than the national average.
This evolving demographic situation calls for fresh thinking at the policy level to not only take care of the ageing population but also devising ways in which the potential of the senior citizens can be fully utilised.
You can read the original here.
(https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2014/mar/12/HC-Concern-for-Senior-Citizens-585368.html#.UyBeU_m1ZtA)
To help senior citizens to step into life with second career options after retirement, the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO) is holding a senior citizen mela to help them train and choose career options.
The senior citizen mela is being held at Rabindra Tirtha in New Town Rajarhat adjacent to Kolkata from Friday and will continue till Monday, WBHIDCO sources said today.
In the mela workshops are being held to help senior citizens learn on cooking and home delivery, IT and Desktop publishing, Handicraft and run a boutique, beautician course to run a beauty parlour, so that they can start their second career options, the sources said.
Seminars are being held on legal matters, developing writing skills and net publishing, Home tourism, Financial management, diabetics – know your numbers – way to a healthy life to help senior citizens, they said.
A fashion show by the senior citizens was also held in the mela.
In the mela, a book fair is being held. Life of Rabindranath Tagore, art and paintings of Rabindranath Tagore and commemoration of 100 years of receiving Nobel prize by Rabindranath Tagore showcased by the Information and Cultural Affairs department of government of West Bengal is also being organised.
The original article is here.( https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/mela-to-help-senior-citizens-start-second-innings-114030200166_1.html)
I was recently invited to give a talk at the Rotary Club of Madras South and they very kindly recorded my talk and put it up on youtube. I have embedded the link below.
Students from the Asian College of Journalism visited our store and did a short segment about Old is Gold Store. It was heart warming to see our future journalists being so professional and interested in socially relevant causes. Enjoy their presentation.
Lifestyle changes with age and so does aspirations. In this case, you have to take a special review of your insurance portfolio, especially after 50 years of age. There are many people who buy different types of insurance policies during their young age. That’s good and it helps in developing a sizeable corpus along with protection against risks.
Nonetheless, after the age of 50, life brings forth many more complications besides the physical feebleness. Retirement issues haunt the mind and responsibilities that have not been fulfilled yet rob most of the space in the life. Since you have spent all your lifetime in procuring the assets and securing your future, you should take care that your belongings are not left astray to various uncertainties. At the same time, it is imperative that you protect yourself and take care of your health to spend the remaining life happily.
Here are a few tips on what should be considered after the age of 50 to optimise the insurance portfolio without losing on any financial aspects.
Health insurance: During old age, you require due care and attention to your health. After 50 years of age, you can focus more on a comprehensive health insurance plan. You might wonder whether or not insurance companies in India offer health insurance to people above 50 years. The answer is: yes.
Until a few years ago, insurance companies were reluctant to provide health insurance coverage to people above 50 years. But now it is different scenario. In 2009, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) categorically asked insurance companies to extend health insurance coverage to people up to 65 years.
The regulator also prevents refusal of health insurance services or undue charging of premium amount due to old age.
There are companies which have specific health insurance plans for people above 50 years age. In fact, many offer coverage against pre-existing conditions and provisions without medical tests. Amount of premium is indeed higher in such cases but that ensures a complete peace of mind.
Some plans also offer additional riders such as provision of medical reimbursement for tests as well. As per the IRDA ruling, the amount of reimbursement in such cases should not be less than 50 per cent.
Life insurance: If you think very logically, you will realise that life insurance is meant to replace policy holder’s income in case of death. It may sound brutal but going by this rationale, you may think of reducing your investment in life insurance premium to an extent which is bare minimum. This amount should be able to provide necessary support to your dependents. Over that, you can invest more in regular income producing instruments.
Naturally, these instruments could be insurance plans that provide a combination of health insurance, life insurance and pension scheme.
You may consider liquidating traditional endowment insurance policy as it may not serve your purpose after a certain age.
Car insurance: There seems to be no evidence of increase in premium due to the old age of the driver. However, if you have been a responsible driver for quite a long time, insurer may renew your car insurance policy at a comparatively lower rate of premium. If nothing else pays in the old age, experience holds you for what you have achieved in so many years. For the same reason, there are lesser probabilities of you getting into a collision.
Then again, if you have recently got the possession of car and you are new to driving, you should not acquire the car insurance policy in your name in order to avoid the higher premium rate. But if there is no other choice, insurer may charge higher price against providing you the protection.
You can consider pooling wherever possible, if you need to use car frequently. In that case, you can also prefer other modes of transport. This will not increase the number of miles run by your car and you can ask your insurer to reduce the premium due to the same.
Pension plans: Pension plan is widely used as retirement tool to enhance the savings and increase the financial security during the old age. You must be on the verge of receiving the annuities by now. Even if you do not have any pension plan yet, it is never too late to plan for the future.
You can utilize your savings to acquire a retirement plan. Since you have already reached your age now, you do not need to defer your annuities. Instead, you can pay the lump sum premium for the first and the last time and you are ready to receive annuities as regular monthly income immediately.
A lot of preference is given to senior citizens in India. Moreover, insurance companies have dedicated cells to address the issues of senior policyholders. You just need to keep your insurance documents and birth certificates or related documents handy to smooth out the renewal procedure of existing policies or to make the purchase of new ones an easy task.
This article has been contributed by www.policyx.com. The views expressed in this article are that of policyx.com and are not necessarily the opinion of Old is Gold Store.
The Allahabad High Court (HC) has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to expedite the formulation of rules for the safety of senior citizens in the state.
Directing the government to make rules under the Senior Citizen Act and also to constitute a body to hear and redress problems being faced by the aged, the high court asked it to establish old age homes in every district.
These shelters, the court said, should be big enough to house 150 people and should be given proper staff and health facilities for which the state government should make budgetary provisions.
A bench of Justices Sunil Ambwani and Dinesh Gupta also expressed their dismay at the fact that while the Senior Citizen Act was passed by parliament in 2007, nothing serious had been done in Uttar Pradesh to get it implemented.
The government counsel told the bench that while the notification for implementation of the Act had been issued by the state government, the rules were being framed and were under process.
The court directed the principal secretary (social welfare) to issue a fresh notification and give a sworn affidavit of its implementation by Feb 10.
The court gave these directions Tuesday while hearing a public interest litigation filed by lawyer Junaid Ezaz with regard to senior citizens whose children were not looking after them.
You can read the original article here.
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Thrissur (Kerala) : A 104-year-old man inaugurated a special service centre of the South Indian Bank (SIB) for senior citizens here Wednesday, 29th January 2014.
Meleth Ouseph, who hails from the cultural capital of the state, Thrissur, which is also the headquarters of the bank, was the chief guest by virtue of being the oldest customer of the bank.
“I was 19 when the SIB was launched and have been watching the progress of the bank with keen interest,” said the farmer, who lives with his son.
Bank’s MD and CEO V.A. Joseph said this new facility is being opened for the convenience of senior citizens and is being handled by experienced staff.
Health insurance is more important for the elderly than the others, for the simple reason that, as age advances, one’s vulnerability to diseases and physical conditions increases. Thus, a medical emergency could result in severe financial crisis, unless covered under a comprehensive medical insurance policy. Adding to their apathy is the fact that there are many a number of Health insurers in the country who are not happy to provide senior citizens health insurance because of the higher loss ratios.
The scenario now is changing. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority in one of its recent directives had asked general insurance companies to keep at least 65 years as the maximum entry age for a health insurance policy. This has helped increase the number of health insurance products for senior citizens in the Indian market. Many companies have no come up with health insurance policy specifically designed for senior citizens. For example, Star Health Senior Citizen Red Carpet Plan, Bajaj Allianz Silver Health and many more.
Elaborating a little on these plans, Star Health Senior Citizen Red Carpet policy covers people in the age group of 60-69 years. Although there is copayment of 50%, there are no medical tests required at the time of the payment of the policy. Similarly, Similarly, Bajaj Allianz Silver Plan covers people till the age group of 75 years and the policy can be renewed till 80 years. The Sum Insured options start from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5,00,000. Similarly, Oriental insurance’s plan called Hope states no upper age limit for health insurance and covers 11 specified critical illness diseases like Accidental Injury, Knee Replacement, Cardio Vascular Diseases, Chronic Renal Failure, Cancer, Hepato-Biliary Disorders, Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases, etc.
There are a couple of things that senior citizens should keep in mind while purchasing health insurance. Firstly, if you are confident about your health then take a health examination and show proof of your good health to a health insurance agent & company. This proves that you might be getting up there in age but there aren’t any high risks that they would have to take yet. Secondly, it’s imperative that good hospitals near the policy holder’s place of residence are under the network hospitals. At the time of emergency, travelling long distance to reach the network hospital is not suitable at all.
Waiting period for pre-existing conditions is also an important aspect to keep in mind when it comes to purchasing health insurance. Lesser the pre-existing cover, the better. Normally, it ranges between 3-4 years for senior citizens. Copayment options should also be considered as it reduces the premium to be paid by the policy holder. Finally, in case of senior citizen plans, it is very important that all the clauses are read and clearly understood. A seemingly normal looking clause can have certain hidden implications; hence, it is advised to consult the company representative to get a perfect clarity.
As the market is abound with options it gets important to go through all the options and then zero down on one to buy the best health insurance policy for the elderly. Ideally, try to compare senior citizen health insurance quotes online from a number of different providers. It allows you to pick and choose from policies and rates and get in touch with a representative of the insurance company to discuss risk and ways you can lower it. Before you decide on purchasing a certain policy, we would recommend you scan all the possible options and decide on the one that is best healthcare policy suitable for senior citizens. The author is a CEO and co-founder, www.policybazaar.com