Bengaluru: Clad in formals and their CVs updated, over 1,250 senior citizens turned up at 'Jobs 60+', an annual job fair for the elderly, organsied by Nightingales Medical Trust in association with Rotary Bangalore West and St Joseph’s University on Sunday.
A majority of senior citizens were looking to get back to work to keep themselves occupied and self-sufficient. Many were also looking to meet financial needs.
With 25 years of experience in a leadership position at a private company, Syed Anjum, a 56-year-old trader, said he needed a job to improve his financial condition.
Vasanthalakshmi and Sundar Raman, both in their mid 60s, said they were at the fair to land a job that meets their ends.
"We don’t have children. My husband worked at an optical shop earlier, and I was an accounts manager for a private company. After retirement, it has become really difficult for us to afford the rent and other bills with soaring inflation," Vasanthalakshmi told DH.
However, there were seniors like Shyama, a retired schoolteacher who wanted to learn new skills. "I am only 66," she said, asserting that she does not see herself being dependent on her daughter or son, and would rather "explore something new".
There were others like Padmashri and Sanjay K, both techies by profession, looking for jobs that dealt with social concerns. Padmashri said she was looking to work with a firm that advocated women's empowerment.
At the fair, 1,077 jobs from 72 employers were up for grabs, mainly from engineering, marketing, administration, accounts, supervisory, security and other categories. There were also 1,450 opportunities for self-employment through insurance streams.
Instituted in 2011, the job fair has so far placed 3,500 senior persons aged between 55 and 70 years, according to the organisers.
Karthik Ganesh, Head of Sales at Saira Jobs, a Bengaluru-based startup upskilling senior citizens, specially abled and women coming back to work after a break, said dealing with the elderly people could be challenging.
"Bringing them in line with company objectives and analysing their credentials could be a difficult task for HR professionals," he noted. However, he thinks the perks of having elderly staff adds value to startups in dire need of talented individuals to work for a basic pay.
Dr Radha S Murthy, co-founder and managing trustee of Nightingales Medical Trust, noted that as of 2021, nearly 89 per cent of the 138 million senior citizens in India were not covered under any social security scheme after retirement, forcing them to depend on savings and families.