OLD AGE CARE
India, the second most populous country in the world, has a booming population of above one billion people. This, along with an improvement in life expectancy, has led to an increasingly large number of people over the age of 60. The majority of them are very poor and live in rural areas. The elderly have little hope of escaping poverty and their situation only becomes worse as they get older and are increasingly plagued by chronic health problems. Impoverished elderly women face a particularly difficult situation, especially those who are widows. Given their low rank in traditional society, their inability to work can mean they are unable to survive on their own.
Shakti’s Effort for Elderly Care
For the past ten years Shakti has been working on the empowerment of the elderly people in the Rayagada District. Our aims are:
• to foster the welfare of the elderly people especially the needy elderly, irrespective of caste or creed; and
• to create in the younger generation and in society at large a social awareness about the problems of the elderly today.
As a part of this effort, Shakti began working on both institutional and non-institutional care initiatives.
Non-institutional care – We are helping the elderly people to get their Old Age pensions, legal counseling, cataract operations and helping them enroll in the emergency feeding programme. Our field staffs are visiting the elderly person in need in our operational areas, rendering counseling to them and their family members. We also provide them with psychosocial care. We conduct meetings to create social awareness amongst the younger generation and in society at large about the difficulties the elderly face.
Institutional Care (Shakti Old Age Home)
Shakti has been running an Old Age Home at Rayagada since 1 January 2006. This is funded by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India and aims to support the socio-economic development of disadvantaged elderly people by providing shelter, food, cloth ad health care.
Under this programme, 29 and 50 destitute and neglected elderly people, who have no one else to take care for them, are given shelter, food, cloth and medical care in the Home. The Shakti team works to resource additional items such as new shoes, warm winter clothing, toiletries etc that are required by the residents and to keep them comfortable in a friendly, supportive environment.