Old age homes and children homes under one roof: Telangana takes up new experiment to reinforce hope in young and old

HYDERABAD: The state government will soon experiment with an idea of housing an old age home and orphaned children home under one roof on a trial basis to see whether these two groups would reinforce living capacity in each other.
State’s principal secretary of women and child welfare department informed this in an affidavit filed before the high court that is currently hearing a PIL on old age homes and the plight of their inmates.The affidavit spoke about the suggestion made by a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy that mooted the idea wherein it said that such an arrangement may give the children the much needed elderly guidance and the elders may get the required physical support from the younger lot.
The principal secretary in her affidavit said that this requires a policy decision from the government. However we will start this model on a trial basis in one old age home in Hyderabad by bringing in children from an orphanage immediately after receding of Covid-19, she said. The department for Welfare of disabled and senior citizens has established a Toll Free Help Line Number 14567 in collaboration with the Vijaya vahini Charitable Trust supported by Tata Trust for providing guidance , support and care to senior citizens, she said.
The state is setting up three old age homes one each in the districts of Khammam, Kamareddy and Nizamabad in collaboration with Indian Red Cross Societies of these districts, she said. While the state has sanctioned Rs 50 lakh to each of these homes towards 50 percent construction cost, the remaining 50 percent would be mobilized by red cross societies in the form of donations, she said.