With the pandemic and the vaccination drive being at their peaks, society already has a lot to talk, critique and debate about. Comparisons, suggestions, ideas, data etc., everything is flooding the internet, and there is just a lot to consume and comprehend by the netizens.
And with all the anxiety prevailing to get jabbed, after the doors opened for the 18 to 45 bracket, the tech-savvy generation optimized the best of their skills to book a slot for themselves.
But, in the corner, kept waiting the technologically underprivileged, the non-netizens, the backbone of our society, our senior citizens.
According to a Need Assessment survey by HelpAge India conducted in 2020, more than 45% of senior citizens were self-taught about digital literacy (which includes using smartphones, the internet, booking cabs, net banking etc.). It is indeed a matter of shame for the people, who are the masters and creators of such technology actually failed to teach their own parents and grandparents about the essential utilities of these devices. The study also quoted that 60% of the elderly people refrain from using smartphones only because their children or grandchildren do not have enough time to teach them, and they do not want to ‘burden’ them.
The struggles of not being able to book a slot for vaccination and panic against the virus our senior citizens must be going through is indeed incomprehensible. Some of them, who do not have good access to COVID related information sources, are neither aware of their second dosage at all. For some, everything has gone haywire due to their inability to get a slot fr the first or second dose, as they are not even having enough reassurance from the officials that the vaccine shortage is short term.
Many of these people are stuck alone at different places due to the lockdown, making things even worse for them, as neither can they take help from their kids nor anyone around them.
The virus has further deepened this pre-existing digital divide. Considering this factor, the officials should have considered managing our senior citizens more comprehensively, or at least have the provision for a walk-in vaccination with on-spot registration.
In such a situation, it becomes our ethical and moral responsibility to take care and be considerate for the senior citizens around us, volunteer and guide them for all COVID and vaccination-related information, if unable to completely make them digitally literate. And even if each youngster of the country volunteers to digitally educate at least four senior citizens in their vicinity, things will begin to change rapidly, and probably, that is what is the need of the hour; people standing for each other, and especially the ones who are our guiding light, our elders.