SUKKUR, Oct 06 (APP): Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) organized a seminar in connection with International Day of Older People under theme of “Pandemics do they change how we address age and ageing” in Shikarpur on Tuesday. Speaker Provincial Assembly Agha Siraj Durani was the Chief Guest on the occasion.
Addressing the participants, Speaker Sindh Assembly said it was the Sindh province that adopted the Pakistan Resolution for the first time that became the basis of the country’s foundation. Then the initiatives such as the 1973 constitution taken under the visionary leadership of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto further strengthened the country, he said, adding that once again Sindh by introduced the legislation regarding well-being of senior citizens would turn the country into a social welfare state. He said the bill was aimed at making provision for recognising the rights of senior citizens by providing them support for their well-being and participation in society with the consideration that senior citizens were society’s integral part. He further said that problems of older people are being resolved by Sindh Government by implementing the Senior Citizens Welfare Act for Older People 2016. Agha Siraj Durani said issues of Senior Citizens should be projection at large adding that Media can play vital role to promote issues and needs of older people.
In a welcome address Chief Executive, SRSO, Muhammad Dital Kalhoro said SRSO has said that their involvement in social mobilization efforts at the grassroots level has helped local rural communities; He said that his organization grown into a fully integrated organization working for the poor and marginalized communities to uplift them from the vicious circle of poverty.
He said that SRSO works to liberate the latent abilities, skills and knowledge of rural men and women, to enable them to articulate the aspirations to assemble their resources effectively as they can meet their identified needs.
Advocate Naseer Lodhi, Khan Muhammad, Project Coordinator Maria Soomro, Naseem Bukhari, Ms Zuhara and others also spoke on the occasion.
Speakers said there will be more than one billion older people in the world by 2050. In Pakistan the figure will rise to 15.8%, which means that there will be 43.4 million older people by 2050. Country has faced number of problems since its establishment, and due to different situations the access of basic rights and services become very difficult he added that older people are less likely to flee in times of conflict due to difficulties with travel and reluctance to leave home, land, and possessions.
District Officers of the Sicial Welfare department, Office bearers of the district Bar Council Shikarpur including its President Advocate Muhammad Ali Shah, DHO Dr Ghulam Shabir , a number of representatives of the Older People Associations (OPAs), Naseem Bukhari, a prominent writer and notables of the region attended the seminar.
