Old Age Homes are an establishment where senior, old people live together, sometimes also called an old people’s home.
India is home to nearly 138 million elderly people of which 18 million senior citizens are homeless.
What is the condition of the Old People in a family?
These people are abandoned by their families or may just have no means of income or financial support. Conventionally, we are used to seeing/we have seen the concept of joint families in the country, however lately, there has been a shift in the paradigm as more and more people move towards a nuclear or smaller unit of family. With this, the elderly population came to be viewed as a burden and eventually were left behind or forgotten about by their own families. Some slightly more concerned family members admitted their parents and elderly folk at Old Age Homes.
But what about the people who have been abandoned by their families and have no belongings and nowhere else to go?
Many old age homes in the country and across the world charge hefty fees for taking care of their wards. There are only a select few institutions that admit senior citizens and no cost and take care of them without discrimination. The question then arises, how did it come to this? When did such callous behavior become the norm? The answer to these pertinent questions, I believe, lies in a bundle of socio-economic problems faced by today’s youth, who are in no way blameless when it comes to their attitude towards these problems, but arguments could be made to say that they themselves are the victims of the times that they live in.
The Government of India has tried to mitigate the problem of abandoned senior citizens by making it an obligation for a child or heir to provide maintenance and/or provision for their parents and senior citizens by means of a monthly allowance. Old Age Homes try to bridge the gap that exists between providing an allowance and an elderly’s need for a place to call home.
Although Old Age Homes in the country are a relatively new phenomenon and are progressively expanding at an exponential rate, there is still a long way to go in terms of becoming sufficient for the existing population. Currently, there are 728 old age homes in India, out of which 325 homes accommodate elderly people free of cost. This deficit leaves a huge gap considering the net capacity of all old age homes in India is a meager 97,800.
To put this in perspective, this means that out of the 18 million homeless senior citizens, 17.9 million still remain homeless. COVID-19 did not help this statistic either as more and more elderly people were left devastated by its financial and social repercussions. This highlights how grim the situation is and calls for immediate action on the same. A big step was taken by the NGO, Wishes and Blessings towards giving senior citizens the love and respect which they deserve at the Prime of their lives; to enable them to live as valued members of society. A Pilot project by the name of MANN KA TILAK was initiated by Wishes and blessings in 2018.
It is a project aimed at providing free-of-cost facilities to all residents like safe accommodation, a friendly and healthy environment, love, care, nourishment along with all basic amenities. This project which has proved to be a great success has earned worldwide admiration and has been praised by the media. The team is committed and is tirelessly working towards fulfilling their long-term goal of setting up a chain of Old Age Homes.
Although the Government and other organizations such as NGOs and even private entities are trying to tackle this problem, we as a society need to take action in order to prevent such a situation from arising in the first place. Humanity is that which arises from humane behavior. Benevolence is a key component of being human.
I would like to conclude by quoting a couplet from Kunwar Bechain:
ग़म क आग म आसुं उबाल के देखो, बनेगा रंग कसी पर भी डाल के देखो, तुहारे दल क चुभन भी कम होगी, कसी के पाँव से कांटा नकाल के देखो ।