At the Pronam office

August 2, 2013: Today evening before going to the Priya Cinema for Suman Mukhopadhyay’s controversial film Kangal Malsat, I went to the Pronam office located at the premises next to Ballygunge Police Station. Some of the members from The Bengal namely H M Bangur, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Arindam Sil, Jogen Choudhury, Anandi Ghosh and Bickram Ghosh interacted with few of the Pronam members and sought feedback on the project.

From Kolkata Police, the Divisional Commissioner of South East Division, Debabrata Das, was there along with Shukla Tarafdar who handles the 24-hour helpline for the elderly.  It is major achievement for Pronam to have a membership base of over 8500 senior citizens and growing. Pronam, which is a joint initiative of The Bengal, Kolkata Police and Dignity Foundation, was started in July 1, 2009, with 200 members to reach out to support the elderly who need care and attention. Many leading citizens of Kolkata have participated in various programmes organized by Pronam over the years.

Pronam has been organizing various cultural programmes and medical camps to support to its senior members. Another very popular annual event o Pronam is the Puja Parikrama for the elderly. Special permission and VIP cards are arranged for the senior citizens to visit Puja pandals in the city in special buses with Police support.

I am hopeful that the membership base of Pronam would cross the 10,000 mark before the current year ends. ess bee