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They Live Their Life Here With Dignity
The Times of India
Mumbai, India
June 17, 2004
Mumbai, India: A swimming pool. A cottage with a refrigerator and walk-in wardrobes. A six-tier meal plan. A 500-seat auditorium. Sounds like a five-star hotel? Hold your breath-it's an old age home. One with a difference.
From the day the ads for the Dignity Lifestyle township in Neral, which is 100 km from Mumbai, came out, the Dignity Foundation has been besieged with enquiries.
"Ninety-eight per cent of old age homes in our country cater to the destitute and the dying. But there's a new class of educated, independent middle-class senior citizens today who find themselves in the way of their children's lives and out of the protective umbrella of the joint family. It is to them that we offer the 'Dignity lifestyle','' says Sheilu Sreenivasan, founder of the Dignity Foundation, an organisation which promotes a 'dignified' life for the aged.
Anyone over 55 years who can pay the Rs 2 lakh to Rs 8 lakh (depending upon the relative luxury of the cottage) refundable deposit and Rs 3,500 monthly maintenance is assured of an active and enriching retirement. And from the over 1500 responses that the foundation has already received in response to its ads, there are a lot of people who can pay.
Mehroo Mehta, 70, is one of those who has booked a cottage. "I am an extremely independent person and I still run businesses. But I am a widow and my children live abroad. Running two houses and that too without any company can get very tiring. I am looking forward to moving into my cottage where everything will be taken care of,'' says Mehta. She has taken the Rs 8 lakh cottage which offers the "best amenities''.
"The Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation's Harmony Forever Foundation has set up an interactive centre, a magazine and a website for senior or rather 'silver' citizens,'' says Hiren Mehta of the Foundation. It is also setting up two "made-to-order residential complexes'' for senior citizens in Neral and in Kochi. The Silver Line Park in Neral East offers security, medical services and entertainment facilities, at a stiff price again.
Not everyone can afford it. Pervez Panthaki and Narendra Buch come to the Dignity Foundation for yoga and taichi classes and for movie screenings. A psychologist and social worker are at hand and all the senior citizens enjoy each other's company, all at Rs 100 per month. They have read the ads at the Dignity Foundation office but they say that they can't dream of moving there. They stay with their children, but "if someone gives it for free then I'll go!'' laughs Panthaki.
Old age homes that are for free are not ones that would charm Panthaki. The Men's Home run by the Salvation Army in Byculla and the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged at Andheri take in destitute and abandoned old people but do not boast any luxuries.
After a social worker checks the history of the person, he or she is taken in entirely free of cost, but no special comforts, entertainment or advanced medical facilities are available.
Senior citizens can also form or join senior citizens' associations in their areas where they can meet to discuss grievances or hear lectures from local speakers.
"When my father was a senior citizen, there were no such options for him. Here we meet every Thursday and discuss various issues. For example, today we will hear a lecture on how to make a will,'' says R D Walimbe, a member of the active Mulund Senior Citizens' Association.
Townships for senior citizens like the Dignity Lifestyle are a very new phenomenon but they've clearly come none too late for many senior citizens.
The breaking up of the joint family, coupled with the exodus of Indians to the West, is leaving behind a rather lonely, though fiercely independent generation.
Their children may be abroad and their lives here often lonely, but the middle-class senior citizen wants to retain his or her dignity. "I nursed my ill mother for many years. know for sure that I never want to be a burden on my children,'' says Mehta.
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