Home seeks land for old-friendly shelter

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 9: Mother Old Age Home, a unit of Molisha Society, at Jyotigar at Bamunimaidam in the city has 47 inmates, including five males. This home is for old people. Do the inmates feel homely there?

The Home is now located on a rented floor of a multi-storeyed building. The floor is not old-friendly, and the inmates need to be given shelter on the ground floor as many of them are too old to go upstairs. There are 100-year-old people among the inmates. The Society is in the desperate need for a government land so as to give the old inmates shelter on the ground floor.

Set up on June 21, 2012 under the supervision of Utpal Harshbardhan, the Home is being run with 30 per cent of contribution from the families of the inmates, 20 per cent from its advisers and 50 per cent from generous contribution from the public. The Home has Monika Sarma as its secretary.

According to Harshbardhan, since its inception in 2012 the Home got government aid only once, Rs 3 lakh in 2015. "Since the Home is located in a rented building, Rs 40,000 is to be paid to the building owner as house rent every month for 17 rooms. If we're to make the shelter old-friendly, we have to get a proper government land. We seek the allotment of a government land for the purpose. This may put an end to the problems of house rents and inmates going up and down the stairs which isn't free from accidents," he said.

Harshbandhan further said: "The inmates staying here are generally handed over to us by the police or the public. Sometimes, we also bring some old people languishing on roads to the home. We have three regular doctors for their treatment. There are as many as 12 patients who've been suffering from memory lapse, some other have the problem of breathing. We provide them breakfast and tea by 10 in the morning, lunch a 1 pm, tea and scks in the evening and super at 9 at night. Their menu is a mix of vegetable and non-vegetable. However, the use of spice is always under control. We've a library as well for the inmates. 100-year-old Subhadra Devi runs the library. As entertainment they've carom board, ludu, sound box in the morning and evening for music, four TV sets and the like. They like to see the Discovery channel and some serials. The home is totally secular - there're both Hindu and Muslim inmates staying together. In accordance with the season, Bihu, Idd, Durga Puja and other festivals are celebrated here. The inmates can also celebrate their birthdays, mother days, father days and the foundation of the home. The inmates make almost a perfect mix of all the places of the State."