The Hindu Business Line : Urgent need for hospice movement

In the midst of all the talk of the so-called ‘demographic dividend’ made up of the surging numbers of the young in India’s population, one cannot but strike a jarring note: The euphoria over economic growth should not blind us to the three crises in the making as a result of the remorselessly advancing tide of the aged and aging.

The first is the unmanageable pressure exerted by their numbers on the meagre financial and manpower resources of official and non-official agencies undertaking schemes meant to take care of the elderly pursuant to the National Policy for Older Persons, announced in January 1999.

Commendable efforts have no doubt been made by the National Institute for Social Defence and many civil society organisations such as Helpage, Dignity Foundation and Agewell. They should consider carrying out frequent field studies to measure the impact of the ongoing programmes and the extent of improvement brought about in the actual conditions at the household level in rural and urban areas.

The second crisis pertaining to the aged and aging, whether rich or poor, is the bleak future they are up against because of the breakdown of the joint families with all its invaluable blessings of togetherness and support. Sons and daughters, and even near relatives, of increasing numbers of the aged are scattered in far corners of the country and the world. Precisely at a time — the evenings of their lives — when they need all the company and attention they can get, they have to live in utter loneliness, made unbearable if the tragic loss of one of the spouses were to occur.

Setting up old age homes in sufficient number suited to the resource-level of different economic strata all over the country has, in these circumstances, become a pressing necessity. There are only 1,000 or so such homes in all the States taken together, and the services and facilities too are not commensurate with the amounts realised from occupants.

It is time the Social Welfare Ministry, set up a cell, staffed by energetic personnel, to draw up and execute schemes for adding new homes and expanding the capacity of the existing ones, to enforce minimum essential standards in the facilities provided.

The third crisis is brought on by the most excruciating agony of old age that occurs when the old person is at the terminal stage of an incurable disease with all the suffering for himself and others it entails. India is yet to realise the cardinal role played by hospice care. In fact, what the country crucially needs is a veritable hospice movement.

Call to private sector

As Ms Lynne Connor, dedicated to the spread of the movement in India, puts it: “In hospices multi-disciplinary teams offer palliative care, giving not only freedom from pain but also calm, peace, and dignity. As human lives come to an end, hospices care for the whole person. Their objective is to meet all of a person’s needs — physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

Not only do they care for the person who is dying, they also care for those who love them — their families....Hospice teams are very special, dedicated people who also help those family members left behind when final good-byes have been said. There is a light as we go forward because hospice care doesn’t stop with the death of the patient. Caring goes on and on until one day those being cared for find the strength to help others just like them.”

The private sector must give evidence of its social conscience and philanthropic impulse by launching generously endowed initiatives to resolve all the three crises on an emergency footing.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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