KeyWord:
Senior Citizen, Physical Abuse, Awareness, Access to Justice, Lacunae
Abstract:
These words are one of the most quoted on ‘World Elder Abuse Awareness Day’ on June 15th. But like rest of the world, we Indians do not seem to care about elders as much as we claim. The cases of crimes against senior citizens have risen considerably over past years, and the redressal mechanism is not up to the mark to tackle cases of elder abuse, there is a lack of awareness in the present legal system. Thus, senior citizens do not know about their legal rights and redress available to them. According to a report only 11% of elders know about the existence of Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. Furthermore, present Legislation miserably fail to recognise physical abuse as a crime as it only incorporates provisions for pecuniary maintenance of the senior citizens and fail to constitute an effective redressal mechanism for their redressal. Current legal system is sluggish, long and painful for the advancing age of senior citizens. Thus, it needs immediate upgrade to make redressal mechanism more effective and usable for senior citizens considering their advancing age. This paper constitutes a systematic study to answer the following: types and reasons for violence against senior citizens, redressal available in the present legal system and lacunae in the present legislation that should be amended.