World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2017 observed

15 June: World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was observed globally on 15 June 2017. The day is observed to voice against abuse and suffering inflicted on older people.

The theme of the 2017 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is Understand and End Financial Abuse of Older People: A Human Rights Issue.

The theme of the year explores effective means of strengthening protections against financial and material exploitation. The theme also focuses on improving the understanding of this form of elder abuse and discussing ways of ensuring the participation of older adults themselves in ending victimization.

The theme will further serve to inform the thematic discussions of the upcoming eighth session of the General Assembly’s Open-ended Working Group on Ageing, which will take place in New York from 5 to 7 July 2017.

Objectives of the session:

• Frame financial exploitation and material abuse of older persons within the context of human rights;

• Promote research across countries to identify the scale and severity of financial exploitation and its impact on older persons, their families, communities and countries in order to raise public awareness and to inform appropriate responses;

• Stress the urgent need for Member States to take concrete action and develop specific measures to address and monitor financial exploitation and material abuse in the context of an ageing society;

• Share good practices of legislative initiatives and programmatic interventions on detecting and dealing with financial exploitation.

Elder Abuse in India

• As per a study titled How India Treats its Elderly - A National Study 2017 conducted by HelpAge India, around 44% of the people surveyed stated that they were treated badly in public.

• 53% believed that Indian society discriminates against elders.

• In Bengaluru, 70% of elders said they had experienced abuse and mistreatment in public spaces.

• On most parameters, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Chennai emerged as the worst five cities where elders are ill-treated in public spaces.

• The study is based on a sample survey of 4615 elders (2377 male and 2238 female) across 19 cities and covers four main areas.

United Nations Resolution on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) via its resolution 66/127, designated June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2011.

The day represents the one day in the year when the whole world voices its opposition to the abuse and suffering inflicted to some of our older generations.