SUKKUR: The Inter Global Human Development Society (IGHDS) in collaboration with Fatima Foundation Sukkur on Friday held a walk to observe the International Day of Older Persons in three districts Sukkur, Shikarpur, and Jaccobabad.
Hundreds of older people participated in the walks led by Dr Jamil Hussain Shakil.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that this walk was aimed at encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the elderly and stressed the need for the implementation bill from the Sindh Assembly for older people to provide them with proper facilities and protect their rights.
With the changing trend of modern social norms, he said that the old concept of the combined family system was vanishing gradually, leaving no space for the elders of a family to get a respectable place to spend the rest of their lives.
He said that unemployment, the increasing number of people living poverty line, and victims of natural tragedy are the older people facing this issue as it is hard for families to meet both ends of life in their limited resources.
Dr Jamil said that not a single old age home is established in northern Sindh to give shelter to these respectable senior citizens who are not able to earn to bear the expenses of their livelihood.
He said with the support of notables old homes and accommodation places for older people are being set up so that they could spend their remaining lives in a peaceful atmosphere.
In Shikarpur, participants of the rally said that Pakistan was the sixth most populous country in the world; it is amongst those 15 countries where a population of people over the age of sixty is more than 10 million. It is estimated that 7% of the total population of Pakistanis is over 60 with a figure of 11.6 million and this figure will rise to 43.3 million by 2050.
They further said that the population aging is happening faster in Asia and especially in South Asia added that different countries around the world have developed legislation for the protection of the rights of Older People.
Syed Zulifqar Ali Shah, Zeegham Abbas, Khizar Syed, Hassan Imam, Maqsood Imam, and others participated in the walk.