Homelessness Shame That Senior Citizens Are On The Streets

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I was watching the Hindi movie “Vanvas” recently and it reminded me of a story in FMT about old people being abandoned by their families.
Briefly, the protagonist of the film, well-played by versatile actor Nana Patekar, suffers from memory loss. The widower lives with his three sons, their wives and grandchildren in a large house that he built and named after his late wife.
One day, his lawyer arrives to remind him about his plan to place the house under a trust to preserve his wife’s memory.
The sons and their wives – who have been complaining about being unable to put up with him and having to take care of him – are shocked and decide to take him on a trip to the holy city of Varanasi and quietly leave him in a home for old people who come to Varanasi to die.
As they have no intention of taking him back, the sons refuse to give their names and address to the operators of the homes they visit, resulting in the operators refusing to take him in.
In desperation, they abandon their father among the crowd, but not before they remove all identification papers on him and, worse, his dementia medicine.
The rest of the story is about how he meets a petty thief, who is an orphan, on the streets of Varanasi; how the young man tries to rekindle his memories; and how he finally meets his sons and their families again. No, it does not have the typical Hindi movie ending.
However, I’m not here to talk about the movie but about parents, senior citizens, being abandoned by their own children. It does not happen only in the movies. It happens everywhere in real life, even in Malaysia, as a story about homeless senior citizens converging on Jalan Sayur in Kuala Lumpur every Thursday to receive food from a kind-hearted pensioner in FMT on Nov 17 revealed.
Those who viewed the video clip would have noted the surprising number of Chinese who were lining up for food. It flies in the face of politicians from certain parties and others who often claim that the Chinese are wealthy and don’t need government assistance.
No. Not all Chinese are wealthy, just as not all Indians are professionals. The reality is that there are poor people in all communities.
The problem of homelessness is not confined to Kuala Lumpur and Selangor alone; Some other urbanised states too are home to the homeless. For instance, a March 25 Bernama report in FMT highlighted the efforts of 53-year-old Zeti Shuhaila Mustafa Kamal to feed the homeless in a Ramadan initiative called “Sahur with Homeless” which she began 16 years ago in Ipoh.
I could not help wondering if the government is aware of the seriousness of the growing problem of homelessness in the country.
One report I read said that a 2019 survey conducted by the ministry of women, family, and community development found that about 2,000 individuals were living on the streets. NGOs providing food for the homeless just in Kuala Lumpur alone say the number is much higher.
Another report said a social welfare department survey in Kuala Lumpur in 2010 found 1,387 street-dwelling homeless persons. Men formed about 85% of the homeless and senior citizens (60 years and older) made up 22% of those surveyed.
But I was unable to find any new homeless figures, even after googling the welfare department and also searching the department of statistics’ portal for “homeless”. people”. Does that mean the government has no recent figures on the number of homeless in Malaysia? Perhaps it’s stored away somewhere in some file and my search was not thorough enough.
According to the website of Kechara Soup Kitchen, a not-for-profit NGO which provides food, basic medical services and welfare aid to the homeless and urban poor, a total of 10,303 homeless people have been registered by it, and it has served 18,000 homeless people.
Now and then, we hear of the welfare department planning to do this or that to tackle the homeless or Kuala Lumpur City Hall rounding up some homeless people, but we really don’t know if such plans were actually implemented or if anything concrete was achieved.
For instance, Bernama reported on May 25, 2020 that about 360 homeless people in Kuala Lumpur had been “rescued” and would be sent for training and motivation courses. I could not find any report on whether this training actually took place and whether the 360 are now living better lives.
On April 14, 2020, several media reported that the Federal Territories ministry would establish a “special fund” of RM1 million to look after the welfare of the homeless in Kuala Lumpur and that the money would be channelled through NGOs. This was during the movement control order period. I could not find any subsequent report or mention of this money and its effect via a Google search.
The Malay Mail reported on Nov, 27, 2024 that the Penang state government was in the process of forming a special committee to look into the welfare of homeless individuals in the state. I could not find any news report on this matter subsequent to this report.
Perhaps I didn’t search well enough, but I’m sure some political leader or minister would have announced it if something had actually been done in all the above cases, and other instances too.
If not for the many kind-hearted NGOs, I don’t know how many of the homeless would have gone without food for days – or died early.
It’s really a shame that the government has not come up with a comprehensive plan or programme to tackle the growing problem of the homeless.
Keeping in mind the saying “prevention is better than cure”, the government should look at why the number of homeless is increasing and come up with innovative means to reduce, if not prevent, it from happening.
Perhaps the government could offer incentives, such as tax exemptions, to children whose parents stay with them, just as rebates are given for a non-working spouse.
Perhaps, a module could be introduced in the classroom on respecting elders and taking care of aged parents.
I’m sure if the government were to bring all the NGOs and volunteers helping the homeless together and engage them in a brainstorming session, it would be able to get some effective, practical ideas.
Let’s remember that Malaysia is set to become an aged nation by 2040, sooner than previously expected. The department of statistics said last September that 17.3% (6.4 million) of the nation’s projected 37.1 million population would be aged 60 and above by then.
It’s better to nip the problem in the bud, as another saying has it. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect that of MMKtT.

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