MADURAI: Septuagenarian Karuppiah, who has been living on the Gandhi Museum Road pavement for the last 10 days, says it’s like living in hell. He has remained there ever since he was hit by a speeding vehicle ten days ago, just opposite the spot where he now lies.Hailing from Kallanthiri village near Alagarkoil, Karuppiah, a widower, had lost his son ten years ago. When Karuppiah met with the accident, a policeman had cal-led an ambulance, but they refused to take him to hospital, as there was no one to attend to him.Like Karuppaiah, scores of elderly people are living on pavements in Madurai.Mary, 65, has been living on a pavement near a college in K K Nagar for over a decade. She survives on ration rice donated regularly by well-wishers. The possibility of accidents haunt those living on the streets. Packiyam (60), from Sivakasi, a rag picker, now moves around with an injured right foot after he was hit by a motorcycle.Volunteers of the Red Cross Society rescue five or six elders from the streets every week. “Between April and December last year, we rescued and admitted 117 elders to homes for senior citizens after a health check up. Most of them were spurned by their children or daughters-in-law,” revealed G R Sivakumar, director of Destitute and Elders Welfare in the Madurai district branch of Red Cross.A senior police officer said that some north Indian families, who visit Rameswaram temple abandon elders in Madurai. These senior citizens survive on the ‘Annadhaanam’ offered in temples.However, a significant number of them spurn the offers to live in old age homes because they earn enough money to eke out a living by begging, says Sivakumar.
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