The initiative taken by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to build residential old-age homes in 19 districts is commendable and very needful as it would really help in developing different facilities regarding health care and recreational services for elders.
In fact, this would serve as a milestone in solving problems posed by the aged population in the region.
The move symbolizes the commitment to social welfare, but it also awakens one to the realization that society with its different constituent elements has begun to embrace a wider and more humane definition of the people around them and what their rights ought to be.
In most cases, joint family system, urbanization, and migration have affected family life and have slowly eroded the safety net that used to be provided by joint family systems.
Many of the old are left alone and unprotected, with most of them unable, due to the shifting lifestyle, to put their finger on the heart of things, all so distant from the coming generation.
Hence, old-age homes come up as a necessity, and definitely as a moral responsibility towards creating a secure environment for the elderly persons who live without their families or who might have to face the bitter experience of neglect.
While putting the health care facilities in place, the administration is increasingly making it clear that it keeps in mind the medical needs that these senior citizens might have. Indeed, with respect to elders, this would be very important since age-related ailments are very common.
Very special about it are the facilities provided for recreational activities. In fact, loneliness is among two major problems of elderly communities alongside mental health.
The modernizing of old-age homes also shows that the government is indeed being encouraged to respond to the elderly’s immeasurable contribution towards the society.
Senior citizens are leaders, repositories of wisdom, experience, and keepers of the culture. However, acknowledgment should not be the final step in this process; effective implementation must follow.
The palpable success of such a project will be measured on the quality of infrastructure and trained medical staff, not to mention the initiation of recreational programs for the elderly.
Furthermore, effective management and operation of the homes will be most invaluable in gaining the public and aged community’s trust. It should also incorporate sensitization campaigns that will pursue the idea of de-stigmatizing old-age homes.
