Participants of media sensitization workshop on promotion of the rights of older people have called for taking all stakeholders on board to implement the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Citizens Welfare Act, 2014 in letter and spirit. The sensitization workshop under the auspices of Help Age International here at a local hotel on Thursday, representatives of media, civil society, NGOs and Social Welfare Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended.
Saeeda Nudrat, a representative of the Social Welfare Department gave a detailed presentation on the KP Senior Citizens Welfare Act, 2014 as well as progress on its implementation in the province.
She told the participants that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has the credit as first province of the country, which had made legislation for the welfare of the senior citizens, followed by Sindh and Balochistan. The aim of the legislation, she said was to work for the welfare, dignity and comfort of the senior citizens in the province.
The representative of the Social Welfare Department told the participants that the implementation is being implemented and the department has established Senior Citizens Council, which had already held its maiden meeting in September 2016.
She said that the department has also written a letter to the Health Department for the establishment of Special Senior Citizens Counters in public sector hospitals while Senior Citizen Card had also been designed and sent to Chief Minister for approval.
She said that the provincial government has already introduced senior citizens stipend in six districts under which 633 senior citizens have been paid a stipend of Rs 6000 per annum. She said that the amount of the stipend has been increased and from next year the senior citizens will receive a stipend of Rs 12000 per annum.
Earlier, Waqas Shah of the Help Age International gave detailed presentation on the senior citizens population in the world as well as in Pakistan and said that present one person in each nine persons in the country is senior citizen and by 2050 one of the each five persons will be a senior citizen.
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