Kathmandu, January 17:

Connect for change (CFC) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) have asked the government to formulate necessary policies for the care and rehabilitation of senior citizens and ensure their rights through the Constitutional Assembly (CA).

“Through a training seminar, we have recommended six point resolution to the government,” said Prakash Khanal, deputy director of CFC. He added that the authority concerned had been advised to make comprehensive plans to utilise the knowledge, skills and experience of elderly people so as to engage them in economically gainful activities.

He said a conference on elderly citizens recommended the private and public health institutions to take concrete initiatives to set up dedicated geriatric teaching and stroke units in hospitals.

Addressing a three-day training seminar on ‘Healthy Ageing: Care for the Older People for Nepal’, he said the seminar was just the beginning of Nepali diaspora’s volunteering programme and they wer planning to organise similar training in eastern and western region of Nepal that in the near future.

He said that Minister for Health and Population Giriraj Mani Pokhrel had informed them that the government was thinking of formulating special policies on the honour and rehabilitation of people above 60 years.

Dr Jagadish Agrawal, chief of Neurology Department at IOM, sought collective efforts for the protection of senior citizens’ rights. He also pledged to support the training and service needs for the health care of the elderly people in Nepal. During the programme, he stressed on the need for the establishment of dedicated stroke units in hospitals and a ‘geriatric hospital’ for taking intensive care of elderly people.

Gauri Shankar Lal Das, former National Planning Commission member, asked the government to ensure the rights of elderly people and said that elderly people should get right to live with dignity. He demanded the CA to provide social, economical, cultural and religious right to the elderly people in the new constitution.

He also asked the government to allocate ‘special budget’ for the senior citizens of the country to ensure a dignified living for them.

More than 50 doctors, activists and organisation involved in the care and treatment of the elderly people took part in the training seminar.