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| Helping hand |
April 6: The state social welfare department will set up two new shelters for helpless elderly destitute women residing in the Kamrup (metropolitan) and Kamrup districts.
One home will be established in Sonapur in the Kamrup (metropolitan) district while the other will be come up in Boko in Kamrup district.
According to officials of the state social welfare department, each of these homes will have a capacity of 50 beds to shelter elderly women in need of special care and attention. These two homes are currently under construction.
“There are numerous poor elderly women living in the Kamrup (metropolitan) and Kamrup districts who have no one to take care of them. They have no access to nutritional food and the care that an aged individual requires. Although most of them also suffer from several old-age ailments, they cannot afford quality medical care. Hence, in the initial stage of implementing the scheme to provide shelter to elderly people, we are concentrating on the shelter of elderly destitute women,” said Chaidananda Nath, special officer, planning, social welfare department.
“The 50-bedded shelters that are coming up in Sonapur and Boko will help immensely as many such women will be able to get the required care here. Nutritional food will be provided to them along with other recreational facilities. Besides, we will also tie up with a government hospital situated at a close proximity to such a shelter home so that healthcare facilities can be easily made available to them. This will also help us transfer them to the hospital easily in case they need to be admitted there for medical treatment,” said Nath.
Many aged individuals in the city live on their own with no one to attend to their homes. In many cases, their children reside outside the state and as such they have to live alone here. However, there are also instances where many people refuse to take care of their aged parents. The disintegration of the joint family system can be blamed to a great for the isolation that aged individuals are often faced with now-a-days.
Officials of the state welfare department will also take a call on how they will look for elderly people requiring shelter after these homes come into being.
As regards shelter of the elderly belonging to economically well-off families, Nath said, “It is true that there are many non-resident Indians whose parents reside in the city on their own. While they have money, they have no one to give them company. As such they feel isolated and helpless. We have submitted our plans before the North Eastern Council,” said Nath.
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