Mumbai, April 13: ABUSE and loneliness affect senior citizens in Mumbai too, even as the UN report on the state of the World’s Older People rang alarm bells on their condition. The UN report released this week, which said that by 2050 the number of people above the age of 60 in the world would cross 2 million, cited that the elderly in 32 countries were being abused, ignored, denied rights and lived in abject poverty.

Almost every aspect of this frightening scenario is played out in the metropolis here where homes for the aged have no rooms for more inmates, where of the 15-odd old age homes, only four to five live up to standards of upkeep. If you decide to go it alone, you are ill, depressed, in need of a companion and unable to open the door, for fear of getting murdered.

‘‘In fact, they are more lonely than abused, with loneliness causing greater incidents of depression and health problems,’’ says Founder-President of Dignity Foundation, Dr Sheilu Srinivasan. So even as a septuagenarian battles natural physical debilitation in the form of rheumatism, arthritis, diabetes and hypertension, loneliness and lack of activity cause depression. ‘‘Successful suicide is highest among senior citizens,’’ sounds out mental health activist Dr Harish Shetty.

The city has little to offer its ten lakh senior citizenry — a medical system that pays scant respect to age, a mediclaim insurance policy that makes premium higher for those past the age of 60 and a dwindling market for investments. And while the foundation does its bit to bring senior citizens to police stations, there are thousands more who are not covered.

The average life expectancy of an Indian is 61 years, lower than the western world standard of 75. ‘‘Yet, the western world offers affirmative discrimination for its senior citizens, and here despite a Central policy on Ageing in 2000, not a single state adopted it. We have been telling the state of Maharashtra that if it is handicapped on budgetary allocations, it could at least undertake measures that don’t require deployment of resources,’’ says an exasperated Srinivasan, like special queues for senior citizens in bus stops, reducing excise duties on alarm systems, etc. The state has responded with deathly silence.

‘‘Earlier, we have had senior citizens left here by families. Today, more and more couples come to us on their own,’’ says Sister Mary of the Home for the Aged, which has to down shutters once the 185-bedded home is full. Almost every day, she says, she turns down three to four senior citizens. Dignity itself is planning a township of around 500 homes for senior citizens near Matheran.

‘‘Despite the renewed desire for a joint family, there are situations where elders can’t get along with their families,’’ says another trustee of Dignity, Ashok Modi. A dignitarian himself, he recalls how he had once talked to an old woman for half an hour simply because she wouldn’t stop. ‘‘She had been staying at old age homes on and off as she was afraid of living alone. She couldn’t live with her son or bear to have her son live with her!’’ he said.

Living in abusive conditions and suspicious of almost all around them, senior citizens put off making wills and testaments. Says 70-year-old chartered accountant Dhiru Kothari, ‘‘One of their main fears is if the will is out, the favoured person will try to kill them.’’ On the flip side, you have a situation encountered by Dr Shetty who gives a regular talk to senior citizens. ‘‘I tell them not to give away everything in a will, but keep a key with themselves. What happens in most cases is that the parent then has to go back to work in his old age,’’ he says.

Kothari is also of the opinion that senior citizens could help themselves better if they had given a thought to old age in youth. ‘‘I would say that every person from the age of 25-30 should think of investments for their retirement,’’ he felt. And even as awareness about the expanding population of senior citizens rises in the country, organisations working for them have survival tips ready. ‘‘Be active’’ is the loud and clear message.