Lord Dolar Popat is one of Britain's leading Global Indian businessmen and peers. In his capacity as a prominent member of the Lohana community, Lord Popat had commissioned a report to explore the impact of the community's ageing population and how to better deal with it, at the request of the President of the Lohana Community North London, Yatin Dawada, and Chairman of the Lohana Social Centre (Senior Men), Chandubhai Rughani.
Here, Lord Popat explains the context of this important new report:
This report was commissioned before the Covid-19 outbreak earlier this year. Whilst the pandemic has brought about drastic and unprecedented changes in our lives - many of which we have never experienced in our lifetimes - it has also highlighted the urgency of better serving our ageing population and strengthened my determination to address the implications of an elderly population within our community.
People in the UK and in the Lohana Community are living longer than ever before - a major achievement of modern science and healthcare. Whilst an ageing population provides tremendous opportunities for our community, it also presents many challenges which many community members are concerned that we are inadequately prepared for.
This report sets out my own suggestions. They are entirely my own. They are based on a better harnessing of our values to create a more prosperous and effective community. Some ideas are radical. Some will invite criticism. But they will need to be weighed against the backdrop of a new generation of British-born Lohanas, who need a community that is fit for purpose for all generations in the 21st century. We cannot afford to stand still anymore.
I am a firm believer that the role of a community leader is to take his community from where it is to where it has never been. I therefore hope this report presents us with a great opportunity to raise the bar for the Lohana Community in the UK and lead us into the 21st century.
The report that follows makes an important and original contribution on an extremely important topic. I hope the publication of this report will spark a mature debate on the issues raised.
