The term Assisted Living was probably not there in the Indian dictionary till a decade ago, but then, like any developing nation, India too is learning the International terminologies about Aged Care.
From the days of Old Age Homes and Vridh Ashrams, we are gradually pulling ourselves out of the quick sand of Ageism, however we still have One Light year to reach.
Coming back to the topic of Assisted Living, it is an American perspective which basically meant Assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL), however in my opinion the scope of the term is getting expanded. For example, helping a Person with eating, brushing, bathing, going to the toilet, walking, occasional cooking etc was typically considered as ADL.
Originally Assisted Living in America probably started with basically offering a warden in a housing complex which has now expanded it’s scope to many other services.
Luckily in India, the so called Developing Country, we all are born into Assisted Living Homes…. Someone comes to clean the car, do the dusting, mopping, clean the utensils, cooking, washing clothes etc.
The larger point of debate is, people who went and are going to the Developed Nations land up doing these basic household things themselves, whereas while in India most of them would not have done household chores.
Yes, the Socially Developed Nations are at an advantage about basic human sense and they value each life, but then, I wonder how many people can afford 7k – 10k 💰 Assisted Living Facility even after making all the moolah. (No intentions to hurt my American friends).
In today’s world, I feel in India, anyone earning 1.5k-3k thousand dollars a month lives an Assisted Living mode which is probably not possible in any of the so called Socially Developed Nations or the Developed Countries…..
Pankaj Mehrotra
