The Maintenance of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007 (India)

The Maintenance of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill, 2007
Many parents would have a sigh of relief now. But there are certain
issues:

There are Five category of parents:
Parents, who may not have any children,
Unmarried old people and with or without adopted child,
Parents with only a girl child,
Parents with only a son and
parents with a boy and a girl child.

It is not the money part important in all the cases, since many parents would have their own savings to take care of them. The poor who all their life strugled for getting a square meal and spent their earnings to bring up children or didnot have enough money to even take care of their children need monitory support. Children of such parents may not have money to take care of themselves let alone save and send money to parents. Why old age pension then? or is it only in paper?

1. In the case of only girl child in our system when the girl's gets married (given as gift to a boy as per our tradition which still exist - Kanyadaan) how can the present bill ensure that at old age they are looked after by the daughter, who is controlled by the husband and in laws? Even if the girl is working in our system her earnings are considered her own or belongs to in-laws.

2. In the case of boys who will be busy with developing their own career, how they should help the parents and to what extent?
depending upon their own earning.

3. In the case where a daughter and a son or 2 sons or daughters are there how the resopnsibility should be distributed?

4. Providing just money is not enough. What is the duty of parents in bringing up their children? If they have failed in their duty then what is the obligation of children?

5. If the parents have enough wealth of their own then the monitory help may not be required. It is the relationship which gives happiness and not just money. Who has to take care of parents in case of emergencies and during hospitalization?

6. Idea of Government running age old home may not be good.
Government is always a failure in such cases. Let the Government improve the government run hospitals and primary and high schools first, we can think of adding more responsibility to the government if they run the existing instituions properly.

7. Also don't waste tax payers money by coming out with new schemes to fund the private instituions for running old age homes. We have seen how effectively the funds of government schemes are utilized.

8. Leave this to NGOs. Let them prove their ability and genuineness, and capability to raise funds on their own. Government can be a facilitator for this by way of tax rebates for the donors and a rating system for the NGO with out government intervention.

9. NGOs should be encouraged to produce or market consumer goods to raise funds. Maney people will still buy goods and servces from NGO's for a good cause even if it is slightly costlier. Each mall can have a section of products from NGOs or a section where the profits from the goods sold from that section goes to NGO's.

10. We have been coming up with lot of acts, bills etc creating unproductive employment in Government sector. The chairman of the committee on Social Justice is a women and a Lawyer herself. She may not like conmenting on Lawyers and judiciary. How many cases are pending in courts what is the reason for such delays? What is the level of corruption in judiciary? The UN report doesn't speak well of our Judiciary also. Why people go to court? Cannot we encourage out of court settlements and facilitate such settlements?

11.What we need is attitude change workshops-counseling parents as well as children. While it is the duty of children to look after parents it is also the duty of parents to bring up their children properly. There are many parents who would have strugled in their life to bring up their children sacrificing their own comforts and meeal. It is such parents who should be looked after by their children well when they become old. In poor section of the society people think if a boy is born some how he will come up and parent thinks he now has two more hands for earning. If a girl is born they think it is a liability. Maney of them might lived on their childrens earnings even if they them selves are able bodied. Giving birth it self is not a great resonsibility of a parent to his child. In the west there are rules regarding such matters. If the parent is cruel to the child the state intervens and the child is taken away from the parents.

12. While it is necessary to start some where and the government has taken the first step. I feel there is a need do more research on this issue in the Indian context, mainly on type of problems faced by the parents and the reasons, Existing interventions and their effectiveness. NGOs Role. Why our religious system is failing in such matters. Probably our religious leaders may not like doing research on their rolls.

Introduction

Agribusiness Consultant from Bangalore, India

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Tamil Nadu Government introduced a scheme to grant lands under the dry land development programme, to Corporates engaged in manufacturing processed foods. Conditions of land grant were mainly based on the present activities of the corporates. For example a Mango Pulp manufacturing company may be asked to utilise the granted land for developing a Alphanso Mango Orchard in the granted land. The proposals with plans for intercroping, rain water harvesting and such other latest techniquies aomed at water and energy conservation and new crop development were encouraged. The schemes is novel, but how many have successfully utilised the lands granted to them an dproperly so far. readers are invited to reply based on their involvement and experiences.