Students must be taught about the values of our age-old tradition of respecting the elderly
With hundreds of thousands of young Nepalis leaving the country every year for work or higher education – and in the case of the latter not returning at all – the care of the elderly in the country has been greatly affected. Traditionally, Nepal had a very well-built social system where the sons, especially the youngest, were obliged to take care of the parents in old age. However, migration among youngsters, mostly male, to find employment both within the country and outside or to pursue higher education or even to fight for a foreign country has become the trend in the last few decades. This internal and external migration away from their birthplace has impacted the life of the elderly negatively with the erosion of the age-old tradition and culture that gave immense respect to the parents and their care. The fast-changing society influenced by Western values has caught the country unprepared, with the elderly forced to seek shelter in old age homes that are in many cases anything but a place to be when one is financially, physically and mentally weak.
There are varied reasons as to why the elderly land up in old age homes. And poverty alone is not always the factor. Even some affluent and educated families have dumped their parents in old age homes. Still others come to live in them after being unable to face the humiliation of their sons and daughters-in-law who find the old people a burden to the family. Parents are not visited by their children in the old age homes, which is heartbreaking for them.
The government pays a social security allowance of Rs 4,000 to the elderly when they reach 70 years of age and some other benefits like concessional transport fares and subsidised health care. But it has come to light that some senior citizens living in the old age homes were deprived of the allowance and other benefits because they did not have citizenship papers. Moreover, the National Human Rights Commission reports that old age homes were not senior citizen friendly, what with the buildings, toilets and premises not following the set government standards. Most of the old age home residents were found to be suffering from some family, psychological and social problems as well as physical ailment.
Not much study has been done on old age homes and the number of people being pushed out of their homes when they grow old. But it is a fact that the number of old age homes in the Kathmandu Valley and elsewhere has been growing, a trend that will not stop in the future. While the focus is on old age homes, one cannot brush aside the large number of old people who live alone in their homes under the care of a maid while their children live a luxurious life abroad. Such a situation is just as sad and condemnable.
There is, thus, a need to reorient our education system so that the students learn to appreciate the values of our age-old tradition and culture of respecting the elderly. Only then can we expect to see a cohesive, peaceful and harmonious society. Building more old age homes or increasing allowances for the senior citizens, whose annual growth rate is twice that of the country's population, cannot be a solution to the problem.
Tourist arrival
The Department of Immigration has revealed that more than 72,000 foreigners visited Nepal during the month of June, with Indian nationals sharing more than half of the tourist pie followed by U.S. nationals.
Chinese tourists stood at a third distant position with a little over 4,000 during the period. The figure provided by the department is considerably high if one were to compare the number of foreign tourists visiting Nepal during the same period last year when the arrival of tourists stood at a little over 46,000.
Normally the month of June is not a suitable time in Nepal for most Westerners due to the scorching heat and active monsoon that make their travel itinerary very hard. However, most Indians prefer to visit Nepal, especially Kathmandu and Pokhara, during this season to escape the unbearable heat in New Delhi and elsewhere. The department said around half-a-million tourists have so far visited Nepal via air and land routes as of June since the start of the year 2023. More tourists can be attracted to visit Nepal if the government comes out with robust business plans to fully operate the newly-built international airports at Bhairahawa and Pokhara. We need to focus on attracting more tourists from China and other Buddhist-majority countries.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 4, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.