INDIA: Police Launches HelpLine for Old and Alone in the City

MUMBAI (Times of India), May 1, 2006: Mumbai's senior citizens, especially those home and alone, will now have someone to turn for help all 24 hours of the day. All they have to do is dial 1090—the number of ElderLine, a dedicated senior citizen helpline, to be launched by the police in association with The Times of India on May 2 by home minister R R Patil. 1090 aims to assist the old in difficult situations—from spot problems such as a medical emergency (it could be a heart-attack or fall in the bathroom), a robbery, threats of physical violence, and other crime-related issues, to deeper emotional ones like loneliness and depression. In fact, the priority of ElderLine is senior citizens who live alone, whose number far exceeds the 18,000 that the police have already tracked. Over the last decade rapid societal changes within the family structure have led to a steady marginalisation of the older generation. With the rise in crime against seniors living alone in flats, the growing nuclearisation of families and children migrating or working in other cities and countires, there is a deepening sense of vulnerability among the old. The police want to send out the message that they can be called upon in moments of crisis to lend a helping hand. "Now we will be part of their family," is how police chief A N Roy sums up this social outreach.