India News | SACRED Job Forum for Elderly Not Functioning 'very Well': Official
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The government's employment platform for the elderly, SACRED, has not been functioning "very well", the secretary of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry said on Tuesday.
New Delhi, Jun 14 (PTI) The government's employment platform for the elderly, SACRED, has not been functioning "very well", the secretary of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry said on Tuesday.
He, however, said a large number of people want to see how it can be fixed and be taken to various cities.
Addressing an event organised by NGO HelpAge India, Social Justice and Empowerment Secretary R Subrahmanyam said the government is looking to employ 10,000 senior citizens this year through the portal itself.
"The SACRED (Senior Able Citizens for Re Employment in Dignity) platform has not been functioning very well but the redeeming thing is that we have a large number of people, including the former Infosys chief, who want to see how we can fix this and take this forward across the country to various cities and we are looking to employ 10,000 senior citizens this year itself," he said.
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In order to ensure a dignified life for the elderly, the ministry last year launched the SACRED portal, bringing the employment seeker, senior citizens and employment providers on one platform.
He said the ministry is also looking into how to use innovativeness of youngsters from institutes such as IITs and IIMs who are looking at solutions for the elderly.
"They are coming up with solutions to keep the mind of the elderly active," he said.
He said the ministry is organising the elderly into groups -- 40,000 groups -- so they can take up a productive activity whether it is maintaining a public asset or helping people in hospital or having an economic production or it can be going to school and teaching children who require some sort of help.
"We believe that there are people who want to work and there are business establishments who want to hire people who are looking for long-term employees...so may business establishments have taken interest to hire retired people," he said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)