This is why we need more homes for the elderly

When I met Milton Samadder, a professional caregiver, five years ago, he had already established a home for the elderly in Dhaka's Kalyanpur area. 

His home, at that time, housed 40-old men and women who he found on the street or who had nowhere else to go. Some were half-dead and some came to Milton for refuge.

On the day I visited the home, all the residents were lying on their beds because they did not have the strength to move around. Many were very ill – on the verge of sailing away.

I asked Milton why he thought of instituting an old-age home. He responded he was going house to house across the city to take care of people's parents and found the children unhappy and stressed as they had to house their parents who, according to them (the children), were somewhat of a liability.

Yes, it is a sad truth that many children sometimes consider their parents financial burdens. I have visited three homes for the elderly and found that many of the residents were driven out by their family members.

Besides, our social fabric has also changed. We no longer live in joint families, especially in urban areas. Our architecture also supports this; in the cities, we do not build houses anymore, we build flats that are very similar to pigeonholes. 

Our socio-economic strategies are also compelling us to live separately and in millions of cases, the elderly members are seen to reside alone with no one to look after them.

This form of urbanisation is fast percolating down to townships and villages. We will soon experience there, what happened in our cities. 

That is, we may all live in pigeonholes and our families will be separated from each other – our parents, we and our children's families will live in smaller flats, away from each other. 

We cannot stop it. Our parents are alone today and in the next three decades, we will be estranged and our children will meet a similar fate.

From a productive point of view, the elderly may not contribute to the economy. But for a long time, they did and that is why they need to be looked after.

A news report last year said Bangladesh society is ageing and let me quote from it: "A country is considered an ageing nation if 7% of the population are 65 years of age. If the rate doubles in the next seven years, it is called an aged society."

The report added that by 2029, Bangladesh will have 7% of its population aged 65 and above, turning it into an ageing society. By 2047, it will become an aged country.

The report also quoted Unicef's Tomoo Hozumi who said: "The ageing of Bangladesh's population is faster than even Japan."

Everyone talks about Japan when it comes to the elderly. The old people of Japan, who live all alone in pigeonholes, are, reportedly, volunteering to commit crimes so that the law enforcers send them to prison. In prison, they would find many companions, friends, and a sense of community; which they do not find in their free lives.

If our ageing trend is faster than Japan, we might as well start thinking about what is coming. It would be a good idea if we started thinking about building more homes for the elderly. I would suggest we should have a target to develop at least 64 homes, one in each of our districts.

At first thought, the idea might sound strange and cruel. "Are you in your right mind?" many may ask. "How could you think of separating the senior citizens from their families?" 

My answer to that would be: "If the elderly are better off in a home with companions of their age, I believe they would love it."

We know the number of aged people we have, but we do not know about their physical and psychological state. We also do not know how much their children or families take care of them. 

Ask yourselves: how much time do you spend with your old parents every day? Yes, I might know the answer.

Therefore, creating an opportunity for them to have a life with new friends by operating assisted living facilities, I believe, would be a wise idea.

Now, you might ask: where would the money come from and how are these homes going to be sustainable? Yes, that is the biggest part when we think of something like this.

Bangladesh has different strata of elderly people: rich, upper-middle-class, middle-income, low-income and utterly destitute. Given our country's economic reality, it is very difficult for our people to save anything for their retirement.

Allow me to share some ideas on how to raise the fund.

First, the government may encourage the private sector, I mean the realtors, to initiate such facilities which they can sell to the elderly who can afford to purchase, say, a two-bedroom studio in a condominium. This rich segment knows what to do and how to operate the association.

Let me cite an example. 

Back in 1999, a considerably younger man, I was assigned to write a story on the elderly population in Bangladesh. Probin Hitoishi Songho had just built a new 300-room facility for aged people. The old one was not enough. 

The new home, at that time, had better civic amenities for people who could afford Tk5,000 per month as rent. In '99, the authorities received applications from about 5,000 people who wanted to move into the complex.

I am sure, after two decades, we will have many more old people who would want to live in such facilities.

Now, what would you do with the lower income group?

There is a nice way.

Businesses, these days, spend quite a lot of funds on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. In many sectors, the regulators ensure that companies run CSR activities. 

The sectors that do not have any CSR spendings may be advised to adopt it. The government, along with the businesses can allocate land, build the infrastructure and share the operating cost.

It might sound like a long haul, but if we are sincere, we would be able to create a future for our elderly population. Residing in such a facility and dying there is not an outlandish idea; rather it is a realistic call and we must be able to fathom it.

It is time; truly, it is time.

Ekram Kabir is a storyteller, a yogi and a communications professional.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.