Day Care Centers For Senior Citizens

By Murari Chaturvedi

October 1 was the UN International Day for Elder persons. It was also the day to remind in this golden jubilee year of Indian Independence there are over 75 million 60-plus senior citizens of India. The number will reach 113 million in the next 20 years. This is going to be the biggest social problem of the society, where joint family system is on the brink of disintegration.
The need of the hour is to create more and more Day Care Centers (DCC) throughout the country. The concept of DCC is of a neighbourhood place her elders can go in the morning, have breakfast and lunch there, avail of medical checkups, read if they like, and share companionship with other senior citizens. In many affluent and in less affluent households, they are neglected by their families. The younger generations in most of uncared at home.
It is for them the DCC can work miracles and they can live with dignity and sense of belonging. They are not a burden on their families for attending to their daily needs and mental peace. The concept is not totally new to us. There are several ashrams and homes for aged. But this concept does not separate them from their families and kids, during the day they have taken care of and in the evening they return to their families.
The creation of DCC’s should be taken up in all earnest by the social service organisations like Lions Clubs, Rotarians, Giants and all other such voluntary organisations. The DCC’s are economically viable, as families of senior citizens pay the modest charges of DCC or the elders can also pay from their pensions. There may be some deserving cases where they can’t pay, in such cases the voluntary organisations can sponsor such individuals. The elders should not be left out at any cost. They have mature advice to offer based on their life time experience.