For quite some time, many members of the Lohana Community- and indeed the wider British Indian community – have felt that despite the tremendous progress we have made in establishing ourselves in the UK, we have been unable to address issues closer to home, namely our growing, ageing population. People in the UK and in the British Indian Community are living longer than ever before and therefore it presents many challenges which many community members are concerned that we are inadequately prepared for.
To help us face this challenge within the Lohana Community, Chandubhai Rughani (Chairman of the Lohana Social Centre) and I commissioned Lord Dolar Popat to investigate what steps we can take as a community to equip ourselves to cater for our elderly members. Whilst this report was commissioned before the Covid-19 outbreak earlier this year, the pandemic highlighted the urgency of better serving our ageing population and strengthened our determination to act fast. Covid-19 brought to light our weaknesses which have been overlooked and exposed many of the issues we have failed to address such as loneliness, vulnerability, dealing with ill health and keeping up with modern technology – which became essential to stay in touch with loved ones during the lockdown.
Lord Popat has left no stone unturned in compiling this report which took over a year to compose, after taking evidence from over 120 individuals and organisations including the Jewish and Ismaili communities. The report is titled “An Ageing Population in the Lohana Community” and was published last week and as a community we will be posting this report to every Lohana family in the UK, as well Lohana Mahajans across the world.
The report has been well researched and provides a series of key recommendations for members to consider. The aim of the report is not to impose or dictate to the community – but instead to initiate a discussion about how we can work together to address the implications of an ageing population. The release of the report has had an overwhelming response. It has been heartening to see how much interest the report as drawn, particularly on issues such as loneliness which we have been too afraid or shy to talk about.
Research collected by the report shows that people aged 65 and over are a rapidly large group. By 2040, the number of people aged 65 and over will have increased by over 40%. Conditions like dementia will be up by 80% in just 10 years time. The extensive report covers a number of important topics including, attitudes to ageing, pressures on medical care, gender inequality, financial and succession planning and strengthening intergenerational links.
Lord Popat notes in his report that “entering a discussion on an ageing population is to enter a minefield which all too easily deteriorates into an unattractive combination of finger wagging preaching on one hand and the denial of any challenges on the other.” Nevertheless, Covid-19 has provided us all with an opportunity to act now and to ensure that we are better prepared.
However, the most important point to note is that the challenges of an ageing population is not unique to the Lohana Community – but to all British Indian communities. Most of the recommendations are relevant to most communities. I therefore hope that we can all travel on this journey together of addressing ageing together and we invite other community leaders to join this initiative.
The Lohana Community will host a special meeting once it is safe to do so for their members in the UK to discuss the recommendations and implications of this report. Key recommendations range from providing training for elderly people on new technology such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and even WhatsApp, to creating a hotline for lonely people and setting up community based care and retirement centres. Recommendations such as training for elderly and creating loneliness helpline, we have already started discussion with the view to implement them. We hope this will be an stepping stone to opening up the debate on ageing with other communities too.
In the meantime, if anyone wishes to have a hard copy of this report to read or if community leaders are interested in sending out this report to their members please email – [email protected]. Arrangements can then be made to post out copies to you.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Lord Popat for taking the time to compile this report, which will act as a key milestone not just for our community – but the wider British Indian community on how we can better prepare ourselves to cater for our ageing population. It captures very interesting findings and I thoroughly recommend you read it.
