Senior citizens to be provided with Rs 10,000 as a relief package

KATHMANDU, March 27: The Ministry of Women, Children, and Senior Citizens is going to provide Rs 10,000 per month for the next three months to the senior people staying at various rehabilitation centers and elderly care homes across the country as a relief package.

Altogether 1,500 senior citizens who are vulnerable are entitled to the package in the first phase, according to the Ministry.

The decision has been made in the wake of the nationwide week-long lockdown enforced by the government to contain the outbreak of COVID-19.

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Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen Parbat Gurung told the National News Agency (RSS) here today, “The elderly citizens generally tend to have a weak immune system. The government is preparing to provide them with Rs 10,000 for the next three months for them to feed them well.”

The process to provide relief package would be forwarded after the high-level committee formed to prevent and control COVID-19 approves it.

Furthermore, the Ministry has arranged the distribution of masks, sanitizer, and soaps to the elderly citizens who are staying in various elderly care shelters and rehabilitation shelters such as Pashupati Elderly Home, Khagendra Nawajivan Kendra, Mangala Sahana Rehabilitation Centre, among others.

Apart from senior citizens, the Ministry has urged the concerned authority to put in place special arrangements for new mothers and people with disabilities. "I request to keep the person with sensitive health issues in a separate room of the house and pay special attention to the sanitation. Also, stay indoors to help prevent the deadly virus," the Minister appealed.

Ministry’s Under-Secretary Bharatraj Sharma said that the Ministry was collecting data about the people with disabilities, children staying in orphanages and trafficking survivors across the country to provide them special relief package.

The Ministry has been running Corona Health Desk through the Department of Women and Children and the mobile teams have been providing services in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur.