Shelter availability for Senior Citizens

Shelter availability for senior citizens

Table: Number of Old Age Homes in India

SN	State / UT	OAH	SN	State / UT	OAH
1	And.& Nic Islands	0	19	Lakshadweep	0
2	Andhra Pradesh	114	20	M P	16
3	Aruachal Pradesh	0	21	Maharashtra	133
4	Assam	16	22	Manipur	7
5	Bihar	1	23	Meghalaya	1
6	Chandigarh	8	24	Mizoram	0
7	Chhattisgarh	2	25	Nagaland	0
8	Dadra and nagar Haveli	0	26	Orissa	38
9	Daman and Diu	0	27	Puducherry	3
10	Delhi	36	28	Punjab	12
11	Goa	25	29	Rajasthan	12
12	Gujarat	77	30	Sikkim	0
13	Haryana	12	31	Tamil adu	251
14	Himachal Pradesh	6	32	Tripura	6
15	Jammu and Kashmir	5	33	Uttar Pradesh	28
16	Jharkhand	1	34	Uttarakhand	8
17	Karnataka	91	35	West Bengal	164
18	Kerala	182		Total	1508

Let us discuss the availability of shelter for senior citizens. We will consider the poor, middle class, lonely, single, widow. Widowers etc and not about those older persons living with other members in a family. Typical old age Homes run by Government funding and others run by private NGOs cater to poor and middle class section. One authentic and reliable source is the Directory of Old Age Homes compiled by HelpAge. Following table has been compiled out of the Directory published in 2009.

We can observe how the OAHs are unevenly distributed. Small UTs like Goa and Delhi have 25 and 36 OAHs; Large States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have just 28 and 16 OAHs; Bihar, rightly known as a “Bhimary” state, has only one! Southern states fare much better having an average of 135 per state. Tamilnadu (and not Kerala!!) tops the list with 251 OAHs but nearly half of them have not furnished any details which makes one guess that most of them are only on paper. Zero in the table above should actually be read as “Not known” or Null.

From the same source it may be seen that OAHs admitting only men are 34; those admitting only women are 85; those allowing both men and women are largest – 553. Rest of 836 Old age homes do not indicate this info. Should we segregate men and women? Are exclusive old age homes for women preferable? Should more OHs be provided for women? These questions are worth exploring further.

What is your opinion and why?

DO your bit for Senior Citizens National Solidarity Day 16th August 2011