A one-day awareness programme on the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act (MWPSC Act) for police functionaries was organised today by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) in Rajouri, in collaboration with the National Institute of Social Justice and the Anugraha Regional Resource and Training Centre on Ageing.
Sub-Judge and Secretary DLSA Rajouri, Wajahat Hussain Kazmi, was the chief guest at the program. The programme was divided into four sessions. In the first session, Advocate Shoket Ali acted as a resource person and delivered a lecture on the features and significance of the MWPSC Act.
In the second session of the program, a social activist, Pariksha Sharma, acted as a resource person and laid emphasis on different contours of the act. In the third session of the program, Advocate Tarun Vasson delivered a lecture and highlighted the importance of the MWPSC Act.
Similarly, in the 4th and final session, Advocate Shivangi Kant acted as a resource person and delivered a lecture on the salient features of the Act. While addressing the event, the Sub Judge Secretary, DLSA Rajouri, gave an overview of the MWPSC Act and advised the police officers to help the senior citizens in their respective areas within the mandate of the said Act.
Highlighting the salient features of the act, he said that the MWPSC Act was enacted to ensure that parents and senior citizens are given basic amenities so that they don't face any inconveniences. He further said that the act makes more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens.
The Sub Judge (Secretary DLSA) said that with increasing age, older persons become dependent. In addition to the health issues, they are also subjected to different forms of abuse, like emotional, physiological, financial, and verbal.
He also maintained that the Act makes it mandatory for children or legal heirs to provide the basic amenities to their parents or grandparents (or senior citizens), and maintenance tribunals have been established to ensure the implementation of the law.
The Secretary of DLSA also highlighted a number of measures being taken by the government for the welfare of the elderly and urged the participants to educate the general public about various provisions of the act.