For an elderly population of 138 million, India does not have a National Level implementation team for Elderly Care.
India has more elderly people than the combined population of countries like United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
For an elderly population size like India, we are still dependent upon NGO’s, civil society and other stakeholders to draft the National / State Level policies.
Rather than developing internal capacities at the Ministry level, we are still struggling about the basic standards, guidelines and accreditations to be implemented in the area of Senior Care. Though a few states are doing good work, yet in general we lack the will for senior care.
The bigger picture to debate and act upon is, “Are we as a Nation moving in the right direction with respect to social infrastructure for Elderly Care?” Does the 10% vote bank not matter to policy makers and political parties?
National Policy For Older Persons (NPOP 2011) talks about focus on promoting “Ageing in Place” (helping seniors live healthy within their own houses), Assisted Living facilities in every districts and many other initiatives. While on paper this sounds good but unfortunately the ground realities are totally different.
Another point of concern is, if the Government departments themselves keep using the word, “Older Persons”, be it through the National Policy or in the City Master Plans (old age homes), then we as a country will never be able to come out of the taboo associated with the word “Old Age Homes”.
There was a time when people used to retire at the age of 50, then it became 60 and now people are easily working till the age of 65-70. So the question is, “How Old Is Old”?.
While private operators and developers are building senior living projects and home care / domiciliary care businesses for the middle and upper middle income groups, however there are no checks and balances for the underprivileged. The poor and disadvantaged face the brunt of ageing.
Central government can only define the guidelines and recommendations but eventually it is the State Governments who have to build and manage these facilities.
Since each district should ideally have an Assisted Living Facility (ALF), I guess it is high time that the district level administrators should be held accountable for the social welfare of Seniors.
