To Ensure Well-Being Of Senior Citizens Maharashtra Police Directed To Conduct Periodic Visits, Develop Emergency System

The Maharashtra government has told its police department to develop a digital alert system using Global Positioning System (GPS) for the welfare of senior citizens. Apart from ensuring a support system which can track distress calls based on GPS, the government has also asked all district police commissionerates to set up senior citizen helplines in their respective areas. Senior citizens should be able to call the police in times of medical emergency or any other crisis, the advisory to the department says.

“Police have been told to create a jurisdiction-wise list of senior citizens staying alone. Police personnel will periodically visit such homes along with social workers to provide help,” an official said.

Nearly 40 per cent of crimes against senior citizens in the country between 2014 and 2016 were reported from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, government data has revealed.

According to Union home ministry statistics, the national capital was still among the top seven states in such crimes, though it recorded a decline in 2016. As many as 7,419 cases of such crimes were registered in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh taken together in 2014, which is 39.64 per cent of the total 18,714 cases filed in the country that year.