This story is from January 24, 2019

Sheltering elders stuck in formalities

Sheltering elders stuck in formalities
MADURAI: Abandoning of elders has been on the rise in recent times and social activists who rescue them are finding it difficult to find them a place in oldage homes for lack of documents including Aaadhaar cards. The activists say this has brought to the fore the need to set up government homes for the terminally ill.
Quoting from information obtained through an RTI petition, director of Idhayam Trust, G R Sivakumar, said that as many as 299 people, mostly elders, had died in the streets of Madurai in the last four years till October last year.
``Whenever climatic changes happen, those in the streets fall sick and it is the elders who are the most affected, but when we try to admit them to a home, it becomes a problem as no home is ready to take in terminally ill people,’’ he said.
He had found two elderly women abandoned in the streets near the Government Rajaji Hospital in the past one week. The hospital was the best place to house them as they needed medical attention. One of them, Subbulakshmi, who he had admitted two days ago in an unconscious state was doing well. ``Her two sons had brought her and left her in front of an eatery, telling the man in the shop that they were going to get a stretcher. But they never returned,’’ he said.
Sivakumar tried to get her a place in an old age home, but was told that he would have to bring her Aadhaar card and her blood relatives. ``Where will I go to find her blood relatives as they have abandoned her,’’ he said. Adviser to the Aishwaryam Trust, V P Manikandan, says that documentation is a must as helping an abandoned elder and performing his or her last rites could lead to legal issues. The trust goes into the legalities by seeking approval through the social welfare department and concurrence from the local police station to say that the person is an orphan, when they decide to take care of an abandoned person who is very ill.
``If the government sets up homes for terminally ill, it will be easier to take care of them as recurring expenditure for the maintenance of an elderly person is high during a cold season like this,’’ he said. ``Diaper expenditure for a person works out to Rs 10,000 per month, apart from other things as elderly upkeep is as important as children,’’ he said.
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