When the Delhi Government came up with the City Master Plan 2041, they asked for feedback from all stakeholders. As part of the Elderly Care India advocacy platform, I had prepared the attached feedback.
The MPD-2041 had many points which needed to be debated with regards to Elderly Care. Highlights are given below;
1) The calculation of 1 Elder Care Home per 5 lakhs people has been reworded as 5 Community Facilities for 5 lakhs from the previous MPD. Unfortunately there is no scientific calculation to back the logic. The Elder Care Homes have been clubbed with other community facilities which now makes it difficult to actually put a figure on the numbers proposed.
2) Based on the calculations Delhi should have had 46 Elder Care Homes homes of 1000 sq.m. each during the period of 2001 to 2021 and would require a total of 60 old age homes / elderly care homes by 2041. Unfortunately the reality is very different.
3) The MPD – 2041 primarily classifies Old Age Home under the sub category of Community Facility (Type -II) whereas it was the main category in MPD – 2021.
4) Review on the Terminologies Used: Replace the word Old Age Home (OAH) with Elderly Care Home / Assisted Living Home etc.
5) Focus on elderly care is either under the Health Facilities with a floor area ratio (FAR) of 150 or under Community facilities with a FAR of 120. Under the housing / shelter there is not much focus and have been generally mentioned as retirement homes / assisted living without giving any explanation on the terminologies. The FAR specified is too low and will not be financially viable.
6) Lastly there is no mechanism to know which sites were/are earmarked for Elder Care Homes and to how to track the progress of the same.
Pankaj Mehrotra
The document Delhi Master Plan – 2041 can be downloaded here or can be viewed below