CEWA (Centre for the welfare of the aged)

23/02/2016

http://www.thebetterindia.com/47220/doctor-bhakti-yadav-indore/

This is what she has to say about being a doctor who serves patients like her own children, right from her heart.

07/01/2016

A society where people of all age-groups living together without discrimination of age, gender, religion, caste and social class in an environment of security and mutual respect.

06/01/2016

CEWA

18/12/2015

Pioneer in Eldercare Services

An exceptionally self-effacing social worker who shuns publicity despite his phenomenal services to the elderly in India. He is my mentor Prof. T.K. Nair. He pioneered services for the betterment of the life of India's aged, but remains incognito without seeking any recognition of his work. At a time when the only form of service for the aged in the country was old age homes, he initiated community-based elder care services like day centres, self employment through skill upgradation, family counselling, geriatric social work in hospitals, domiciliary health care, etc.For this purpose he founded the Centre for the Welfare of the Aged (CEWA) in 1979, when I was not even born. The newly established Helpage India in 1978 extended funding support.
"We are particularly pleased to be acting in partnership with the new Centre for the Welfare of the Aged, Madras, to undertake an entirely non-residential service to the aged of that city .This project is pioneering a new field of social service which we hope others will follow "(Helpage India Annual Report, 1980). A strong advocate of "Ageing in Place", he says that institutionalisation of the aged should only be the last option when other alternatives are not available. Even before the United Nations declared October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons, CEWA used to organise Elders' Days. While the Government of India formulated the National Policy on Older Persons in 1999, CEWA formulated a national plan of action in 1985 which was referred to in the Lok Sabha by MP Mr. Basudev Acharya. Prof. Nair facilitated the formation of elders' associations in different communities which were enabled to manage the day centres. CEWA also organised the first national seminar on Elder Abuse . The first national directory of organisations caring for the elderly was also published by CEWA.
Picture
First Day centre was at MGR Colony, a slum community
Late Mrs. Tara Cherian, Chairperson of the Tamilnadu Social Welfare Advisory Board, who led a committee of the Central Social Welfare Board in January 1985 made the following observations :
"The members very much appreciated the day centres run by CEWA. They wanted to run such centres all over the country and I am very happy that the programme of yours is very much appreciated".
The Chairman of the Central Social Welfare Board (Mrs. S. Srivastava), who visited one of the day centres on 23-9-1986, observed as follows:
"More such centres are needed not only here but also all over the country so that our older citizens can contribute to the life of emerging India. The CSWB together with organisations such as CEWA will strive for it".
Ramesha M.H.
Editor
Social Work Foot Printshttp://www.socialworkfootprints.org/social-work-articles/my-mentors-story

An exceptionally self-effacing social worker who shuns publicity despite his phenomenal services to the elderly in India. He is my mentor Prof. T.K. Nair. He pioneered services for the betterment of...

15/12/2015

Time line of T Krishnan Nair

15/12/2015

Older persons perish during all natural disasters. The recent flood havoc in Chennai city and other districts is one more disaster that brought misery to many elderly persons. Lt. Col. (Retd) Venkatesan served the Indian army with distinction protecting the frontiers of the country. But there was no one to protect him and his wife during the December floods. Seventy two year old Venkatesan and his wife were living in an apartment in the Defence Officers Colony at Ekkattuthangal. When water from Chembarambakkam was released in large quantity with least warning the gushing water flow was indeed the messenger of death to them.They watched with fear the raising level of water and to save their life climbed to a table first and then to chairs hurriedly dragged and kept on the table. They screamed for help. Finally their cries for help stopped as by that time they breathed their last in the possibly most gruesome manner. A man made disaster due to poor infrastructure planning, absence of regular maintenance of water ways and drains, corrupt practices by the officials in city development,and lack of urgency in action with anticipation caused the death of a senior soldier and his wife. Unforgivable lapses.

30/09/2015

October 1 :International Day of Older Persons.
India will have a massive demographic shift from 100 million sixty plus persons in 2012 to 323 million in 2050. In terms of percentage, 8 per cent of India's population were in the sixty plus age group, while the percentage in 2050 will be 19.1, that is one in five Indians will be in the senior age group then. Another significant feature is the AGEING OF THE AGED ,that is,persons in the 80 plus age group. In 2012 they were 9.249 million in India ; but their number will be 44.218 million in 2050. In the West,"population ageing " followed economic development. But in India ,it has been taking place before economic development. This demographic shift poses many challenges :familial,social,economic,health and political. It also provides great opportunities to society. The central and state governments are complacent. The National Policy on Older Persons (1999) was replaced by the National Policy on Senior Citizens (2011) drafted by a five-member committee of which Dr.K.R.Gangadharan was the kingpin.The new government has proposed some concrete steps, but these are moving at a slow pace.The NGO Pension Adalat organized a massive protest at Jantar Mantar demanding Universal Pension. Eldercare is neither benevolence nor charity, IT IS THE ENTITLEMENT FROM THE STATE of older persons.

21/09/2015

Alzheimer's Day today. AD is a dreadful disease which even one's worst enemy shuld not suffer from. Loss of memory increases steadily leading to depersonalization in most cases. As the daughter of an intimate relative who was suffering from AD told with tears "my father has no reaction when he was told of the birth of my daughter",there are millions of care givers experiencing mental stress and physical exhaustion. A sad fact is the relief expressed by close relaives when the AD patient dies: "Good ,God called him without too much of further suffering".An irony of life

13/09/2015

Today is Grandparents Day.
India is one of the worst countries in the world to grow old. The Global Age Watch study rates India 71 among 96 countries studied. The best z10 countries are:Switzerland,Norway,Sweden,Germany, Canada,Netherlands,Iceland,Japan,US and UK.
Sri Lanka is ranked 46, China 52,Bangladesh 67. We have some consolation.India's unfriendly neighbour Pakistan is ranked 92.
India ranks first from the BOTTOM as far as health care for the elderly is concerned?😀

20/08/2015

My dad passed away about five months ago at the ripe old age of 94. He had retired as a Superintendent Engineer in CPWD, Delhi, in the year 1975 and had been receiving pension from the central govt. since 1975 to 2014 (about Rs. 40,000/-per month).

In the year 2010, he wrote to the Ministry of Pensions asking to include my mother's name (Sharadha) as a pensioner. She's 89 years old now, and she's the family pensioner.

In the year 2012, due to my father's failing eyesight, I reminded them (MoPn) by email as well as by phone. I was told that they were processing the request and will be sent the revised papers "soon".

It was 2014, and my dad had still not received any confirmation about my mom's name being included as a family pensioner. He passed away assuming his wife will not be the recipient of that 25,000/- Rupees per month as her pension. When I went to the bank after my dad's demise with all the papers, they said my mom's name was not in the pension payment order. Frustrated, I sent a copy of the earlier correspondence of 2010 to the pension ministry. Within 4 days I got an email from some clerk saying the papers will be ready within a week (not a vague "soon").

On the fifth day, I got a phone call from a person who introduced himself as Dr. Jitendra Singh and he said that the papers with my mom's details had been sent to the bank that very day.

I hung up after thanking him. When I checked their website, I found out that Dr. Jitendra Singh was the minister of state for pensions and
personnel grievances, reporting to a Sr. cabinet minister who was Mr. Narendra Modi himself.

When I called back to thank the minister, he modestly said it was the PM's directive that no woman who has lost her husband recently should be further traumatized by delayed paperwork on pensions. What Manmohan Singh did not do in four years, Narendra Modi did it in just four days!

And last month when my mom had to give her life certificate to the bank, a bank officer came home to get her signature due to her old age. (Last year, I had taken my 93 years old dad to the bank with great difficulty). The bank also confirmed it was a Finance Ministry directive to treat senior citizens with extra sensitivity!!

You may decide to share if this mail brought out tears in your eyes too. "

- Col. G. Pratap Raju

10/08/2015

https://sujnaturelover.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/the-ageless-wonder/

For 91-year-old Sunanda Rangappa Nayak, age is just a number. Her cheerful disposition, magnetic presence and love for life will have one and all mesmerised. Picture above: Sunanda says "Hi." Char...

06/08/2015

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/silent-killer-of-minds/article1437636.ece

DR. T.K. NAIR Alzheimer’s has been called a silent epidemic, a progressive degenerative disease without cure that mostly strikes people in their sixties, a destroyer of personalities and home