Govt to ensure no abandoned senior is homeless: Sawant

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said the state government has initiated steps to ensure that in the next 25 years, not a single senior citizen or a person with mental health issues is rendered homeless. Currently, nearly 2,000 senior citizens live in government-run centres.
Speaking at the inaugural function of a national conference on street-dwellers, Sawant said that a lot of people with mental illness are found outside hospitals as their families throw them out. “In many cases, mentally ill persons are thrown out are senior citizens,” he said. “Even some retired military personnel go through this trauma.”
The chief minister said that the state has started ‘Mulyavardhan’, a value-based education programme, at the primary level, to help the next generation take care of elders.
The programme was introduced in the state’s 716 government primary schools in 2016. “If we start inculcating Mulyavardhan in children, they will understand the importance of seniors and won’t abandon them,” he said.
Sawant said that the government is running 12 centres on the Pernem to Canacona stretch to care for seniors.
He said that about seven NGOs are working in the state to tend to senior citizens. He said that the state government provides financial assistance of Rs 3,000 to take care of one orphan child per month. He said that 13 NGOs are focused on the future of orphan children.
The CM said that the Centre supports the NGOs in these endeavours. “Someone has to take care of seniors,” he added.