One stop information destination for the elderly

KOCHI: If you thought senior citizens were not cued into the virtual world, you might soon have reason to change your mind. In a one of its kind initiative, the Centre For Public Policy Research has launched a new internet portal for ‘seniornet’ exclusively for senior citizens.The portal will constantly update its members on the latest developments in government policies, legislations and other notifications that are relevant to senior citizens. These developments will be fed into the portal by the CPPR. The portal will also act as a global interface for senior citizens from India. The registered members can also update each other on health tips, events and various other aspects concerning senior citizens.“There is a lack of information among senior citizens. Once you attain retirement, many of the information, even those regarding your job benefits become unavailable to you. This is one of the reasons why many of the senior citizens do not avail of the various schemes and programmes. For instance, under a new notification , the central government has announced a major hike in the pension for people who have retired from central government institutions after 2006. But to receive it one needs to send an application to revise the pension followed by some procedures. But most of the retirees are unaware of it.  All such information will be fed to the internet portal,” said member of the CPPR and former Director of the State Literacy Mission Gopinath Panangad.Apart from providing information,  the Centre for Public Policy Research also looks at making use of the portal for gathering information. “Most of the senior citizens who use the internet come from an educated class. In our experience we have seen that many of them have a lot of information about various subjects. Such information can be shared here for a public purpose. Since most of them have a lot of leisure time they are also at an advantage when it comes gathering new information,” said the Programme Coordinator, Centre for public Policy Research, Jiyad.All Indian nationals living in the country and abroad and who are above 55 years of age can join the group. Regisatration can be done by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. There are no registration charges.