INDIA: Vanaprastha is a Home to Call Their Own

COMFORT ZONE: Single old people happy amid adopted family members at a home near Bapatla. Photo:T. Vijaya Kumar

BAPATLA, Guntur (THE HINDU), April 9, 2007:
Eleven single old people have got their homes back, as each person at the `Vanaprasta' Old Age Home run by Viveka Service Society treats it like their own and cherish every moment they spend on the campus.

One might not notice anything peculiar at `Vanaprasta' at first sight, but the variety of flowering and ornamental plants grown in the sprawling garden takes one into a different world of its own. Tree-covered small hutment-like permanent structures attract a visitor into a world of contentment.

Dignified life
Old people past their 60s and having lost all their financial and social support were chosen to become part of this house tucked away in greenery of tall green trees away from the din of nearby town Bapatla, where they lead dignified life sharing happiness and sorrow with their `family members'.

Unlike many old age homes here, they do not spend a single rupee and are amidst people of all age groups right from children to people past their 70s.

The administrative office of the society is attached to the Home and they contribute their bit. Everyone in the society eats along with the six old men and five women while employed cooks prepare the meals.

None is related to the other through blood, but the atmosphere is one of a happy joint family, with society chairman Murali Krishna taking a keen interest by providing them the deserving attention.

Forming SHGs
"Taking care of the garden, providing some useful tips to children and women is regular routine for the old, but here they do not live to spend rest of their life," points out Murali Krishna.

Empowering women financially is the business of the society by forming self-help groups and channelling funds from reputed Government organisations and banks to promote savings and thrift concept among womenfolk. Started in 1999, the society celebrates Women's Day every month instead of every year.

These grey heads provide their words of wisdom to the poor and illiterate women from 13 mandals of Guntur district in Tenali sub-division and one mandal of Prakasam district also.

Regular discussion on various socially relevant topics is taken up and ill effects of the `illegal and immoral' methods of collection by some greedy micro-finance companies are driven home with some audiovisual equipment/charts.

By Ramesh Susarla
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