The NHRC has expressed concern over increasing miseries of old people due to abandonment by their legitimate caretakers, and has chalked out awareness  programmes for senior citizens on the problems haunting the old age.

Inaugurating a five-day Health Protection and Education Programme for senior citizens organised jointly by Dr P S Shankar Prathishtan and the NHRC here on Friday, Commission Member Justice Shivaraj V Patil said they are facing many problems including emotional, psychological. social, family apart from the sense of insecurity. 

He said the number of senior citizens in the country has been increasing with every census and it will become enormous in the years to come. In 1901 there were 12 million old age persons which shot up to 20 million in 1951.  As per the 2001 census, there are 77 million old age persons crossing the age of 60 years.