Senior citizens are vulnerable - in Karnataka, two of them are victims of crime every three days

The lives of senior citizens who stay alone are invariably at a great risk. In Karnataka, two of them become victims of crimes like murder, dacoity and robbery every three days. This shatters the elderly-friendly image of the state. Bengaluru which once had the label of Pensioners' Paradise, tops the state in crimes against the elderly. This underlines the fact that the city is far from safe for its senior citizens. This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 8 June 2016.

Needless to say, Karnataka is trying to come to terms with the issue of security of its elderly. The existing socio-economic factors are increasingly pushing them into isolation and, hence, they are becoming all the more vulnerable. As per police records, murder of senior citizens accounted for nearly 8% of the total murders reported in the state in 2014 (124 out of 1,636). According to Census 2011, the elderly comprise about 8.4% of Karnataka's population of 61 million and, since last month, four senior citizens have been murdered in three separate incidents in Bengaluru - all of them were living alone. In one case, a couple was killed by an electrician and his friend who were seeking loan from them. The couple's son was away in the US. Then there was the case of an elderly woman who had come to take meditation classes in Bengaluru - she was killed in her home, her killers are still at large. In the third case, an elderly widow was allegedly killed by here relatives for gains - her techie son was staying separately. Of course, this is not a problem unique to Karnastaka or Bengaluru - it is very much an area that requires to be looked into by society. And - the local police can play a major role by maintaining constant contact with such elders - probably by phones if not by visits.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Switzerland builds the 57-Km long Gotthard Railway Tunnel under the Swiss Alps

Shocking discovery of carcasses of 40 tiger cubs in Tiger Temple of Thailand

WWII bomb in London bound Eurostar in Paris creates panic


All about chest size and happy days (satire)

Lord Shiva unable to fathom IPL T20 cricket (satire)

Monsoons and Didi’s flipflops aka Hawaii chappals (satire)


Rock music festival in Germany suspended due to lightning strike in which more than 70 injured

Arnold Schwarzenegger was chased by an elephant in South Africa

Kavita Kaushik to play the role of an Army doctor in TV show “Dr. Bhanumati on Duty”


ISIS using human shields to counter attacks by Iraq military

ISIS cornered as Russian-backed Syrian army enters ISIS stronghold in Raqqa

Germany arrests three ISIS men who planned an attack on Duesseldorf