India, Sept. 5 -- The recent murder of an elderly woman in Panchkula's Sector 21 has disturbed something deeper than one neighbourhood. It has unsettled the assumption that the tricity's carefully planned sectors, familiar streets and leafy residential colonies automatically make it safe to grow old.

Elderly safety is not confined to what happens behind a front door. It is about an 80-year-old going for an evening walk, a retired couple living alone, someone sitting in a park after sunset, or an elderly person receiving a call from someone pretending to be the police. The tricity needs to ask: are we designing safety around the elderly or asking them to design their lives around danger?

Safety should not end at the gate

With children i...