August 22 marks Senior Citizens Day. In India, perhaps across the world, life is lonely and difficult for the elderly. Luxurious retirement centres have begun to appear in and around the city, catering to the more affluent elderly who live here alone. The demand for nursing care is also on the rise, although this is both expensive and not up to par. While some hospitals do offer geriatric care, access to these facilities is always a challenge. Without a registry of senior citizens and social initiatives to ensure they are taken care of in every way, the senior citizen has a rough deal. Abuse is on the rise too with more children resenting their ageing parents or trying to access their inheritance before time. Aksheev Thakur, Abilash Mariswamy and Shweta Singh report
Justice Raghvendra Rao retired as District Judge in Goa. As he approached retirement age, he became more and more sure of one thing: he wanted to play the last innings of his life on his terms. Impressed by the greenery, the architecture, the top quality care, from people who will run your daily errands, to nursing care and medical treatment, Mr Rao decided to stay. "I enjoy my independence here," he says.
Mr and Mrs Vittal have had hectic lives in various cities. As they retired, they wanted to do so with their hobbies, from photography to gardening. Mrs Vatsala Mittal, who has been at Primus for two years, says she feels part of a family. "I attend social gatherings and celebrate all my festivals too," she smiles.
The term 'retirement home' brings to mind unpleasantness, of old people being abandoned by their children. While this certainly exists, the new wave of retirement homes are anything but, in fact, they're probably where you want to be when you're ready, provided you have a nice little nest egg. With the focus on nuclear families and offspring settling abroad, India's senior citizens certainly must battle loneliness, if financial shortcomings are not a problem. Today, moving into a retirement home or opting for Assisted Living, as it is called, is not just about dealing with the ills of old age, senior residential centres g ive people everything they need, from quality healthcare, leisure activities and company.
"Builders are opting for projects like these," says prominent architect Naresh Narasimhan, of Venkataramanan Associates. "However, there has to be interaction with all age groups, with community facilities and accessibility for the differently-abled." Although the concept is still nascent in India, Narasimhan agrees that builders are coming foward for projects of this nature.
In 2016, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said over 29% of the nation's elderly reside in urban India. With pollution and the many environmental costs of development on the rise, however, several senior citizens now prefer to spend their retirement in a more tranquil setting.
A retirement home on the outskirts of Bengaluru, built by the Mantri group, is now very sought after. "We want to make them feel at home here, we don't want them to feel like they are part of an old age home or a hospital," says Shanthasheela MN, General Manager, Operations. This particular retirement home comes with an infirmary, dining hall, library and auditorium, along with a number of other features.
Ill, ageing, with no place to go
As urban families lean more towards nuclear setups, there has been a marked rise in the demand for nursing assistance among senior citizens in Bengaluru. Parents are left to themselves as their children settle abroad. This, apart from diluting the parent-child relationship, has also left elderly people feeling helpless in terms of access to healtcare. Nursing assistance, available to senior citizens, can help them maintain a healthy diet, hygiene and overall wellbeing. The cost usually varies from Rs 14,000 to Rs 17,000 depending ont he locality. However, with the obvious expense of individual nursing care, senior citizens still struggle for proper healthcare. Ravish is 80-years-old, a retired teacher living with his wife. Both his children are currently studying in the United States. Ravish, who has a medical history of cardiac ailments, was on blood thinning medication along with treatment for severe, chronic diabetes. Last week, he met with an accident on the road, leaving him confined to his wheelchair. Dr Sachin Sinha, secretary, Narain Sewa Sansthan, said, "On Sunday, Ravish called me repeatedly for help. Since he wasn't able to come to me, I had to go to him with treatment and also get hte medcines." Ravish is only one example, he says, of senior citizens struggling for basic healthcare assistance. Experts point out that there are many government schemes, including a Senior Citizens Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS), which exists along with the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima YOjana (RBY) scheme, National Programme for the Health Care of the Elderly (NPCHE), several programmes under Vayoshrestha Samman, Sandhya Suraksha Scheme, day care centers and helplines. However a lack of awareness among senior citizens is the main reason for them not being effective enough. Dr Usha Manjunath, Director, Institute of Health Management Research, said, "There should be proper awareness created about government schemes. Providing nursing facilities at their doorsteps should be another option. Private hospitals like FOrtis, have a dedicated geratric unit to meet all the elderly medical needs. This can be a single point of access for compassionate, holistic geratric care. People over 65 years of age, suffering from issues like memory problems, urinary incontinence and mobility issues as well as more complex issues like Parkinson's Disease, heart failure and those requiring terminal care, get special privileges at these geriatric clinics.
Offspring perpetrators of abuse
A gang of burglars arrested by Bengaluru police were found to have in their possession a list of senior citizens living in the area. They had, at the time of arrest, committed robberies in two houses where elderly women lived alone, including that of an 85-year-old retired scientist. In another incident, a 65-year-old woman living alone was found dead, with her throat slit at a farm house in Kengeri. Bengaluru, once considered the pensioners’ paradise, is now seeing a rise in crime against senior citizens. The city ranked tenth in terms of abuse of the elderly in mega cities. Mangaluru topped the list. The elderly in Bengaluru fall prey to crimes like murder, dacoity, online fraud and robbery. On an average, 3 senior citizens become victim to crimes like these every day, said a police officer.
They are an easy target for crime. “As far as crimes like murder, dacoity or robbery is concerned, in majority of the cases, the criminal is known to the victim. Senior citizens are victims of murder of late, with personal animosity and petty quarrels triggering the crimes. As these usually involve someone close to the victim, they are difficult to prevent, says another officer, adding, “The continuous awareness programmes have helped bring down crime against them.” An all-India report by Helpage India, released on June 18, World Elder Abuse Day, found sons, daughters-in-law and social media as the biggest perpetrators of abuse and neglect. The study, conducted in 23 cities found the son to be the perpetrator in 52% of the cases, in 34% cases the daughter-in-law was the abuser. Common forms of abuse are disrespect 56%, verbal abuse 49% and neglect (33 percent), the report mentioned. Disturbingly, 12% said they were either beaten or slapped. At the national level, 70% of the abusers have been educated up to Class 12 and 40% of them are skilled workers or self-employed. The average age of the abuser was 42. The main reason for abuse was related to the abuser wanting to live independently (26%). Property (22%), lack of resources to meet the needs of elders (22%) and dislike for the senior’s way of living (23%) were also cited as reasons for the abuse. At least 25% of the interviewed elders said that their children saw them as a burden.
