Ravi Shankar Sinha and (above) VS Dubey. Pictures by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Feb. 15: The brutal murder of Sitaram Yadav, a 70-year-old man living with his wife in a two-storey house at Agamkuan, has brought to focus the insecurity and loneliness senior citizens are facing in Patna.

The capital has a good number of elderly couples who live on their own after their children move to bigger cities in search of better opportunities. Post-retirement, these senior citizens often feel lonely but there’s nothing much they can do besides praying for the well-being of their children and talking about them with relatives and friends.

Ajay Kumar Sinha, a retired chief engineer whose all three children are settled out of Bihar, said: “I am proud and happy that all my children are well-settled. My wife and I feel unsafe at times but my brothers stay within half-a-kilometre radius of my house and that’s a huge relief for us. My relatives come to see us every now and then. We have accepted this that our children might not come back immediately if something unpleasant happens to us.”

Sinha has one son and two daughters. His son is vice-president in a corporate house outside Bihar. All three children of Sinha moved out of Patna 10 years ago. “My kids keep visiting us and even we go to their houses at times,” he said.

Fear of crime and criminals has forced many elderly couples to vacate their houses and move to rented apartments. They often rent out their sprawling homes and live in two-room sets just because the big buildings are well-watched by security guards.

V.S. Dubey, former chief secretary of Bihar and Jharkhand, said: “Those parents are most fortunate whose children are well-settled. Distance should not come in the way of childrens’ progress.”

Dubey has three children and all are living out of Bihar for around 10 years now. Dubey said: “Due to Internet, we feel near to our children. If they would have been here, it would have created more tension for the reason that they wouldn’t have been as well-settled as they are now.”

At the same time, Dubey said: “We do feel lonely and unsafe but we have compromised somewhere for the happiness of our kids.”

Ravi Shankar Sinha, the general secretary of Bihar Pensioners Samaj, said he is always in touch with his children through mobile and Internet. He has four children and one of them is in Dubai. Sinha said: “I am mostly busy with my society (registered). I do miss my children but I like to spend my time on my work.”

Sinha said sending out children is important as they have to make a career for themselves.

Sinha said: “Once children go out for studies, it’s not possible for them to return immediately. All parents cannot afford (financially) to keep their children with them.”

He admitted he feels lonely at times but said he does not intend to go to an old-age home. “Values still are very much intact in Bihar and old-age homes are not much required here,” he said.