Old Age Homes...A Boon...

Old age homes are a boon to the elderly. This statement may sound offbeat with everybody clamoring their protest against elders being forced to stay in old age homes.

I would like to analyze the other side of the problem.

Many reasons make the senior citizens seek the shelter of old age homes.

1. Sons and daughters and their spouses who feel their aged parents a burden either drive them out or leave them in old age homes.

2. Incompatibility among the family members.

3. Loneliness felt by the aged at home when both the couples go to work.

4. When the son or daughter goes abroad, the parents are left alone. They need company and someone to look after their needs. So they voluntarily go to such homes, pay for their stay and enjoy a better life in the company of similar elders.

5. Destitute who have no other option and who are too frail and aged to work knock at the doors of such homes.

The reasons may be good or bad, right or wrong. We need to appreciate the services of the people who run old age homes. Some do it voluntarily, some as NGOs and others for an amount they receive from the inmates.

People who support such homes and organizations through their donation in cash or kind also deserve our praise and appreciation.