Blog@GraceJunction

“Trust me mom, you will love this place.  It has all the amenities that you need or want, more than what you ever got so far.  Weren’t you always looking forward for your own suite with an attached bathroom?  And how much you love satin bed sheets and pillow covers!  This place has got everything,” said the young suave executive on the phone, sipping his hot cuppa. 

Eavesdropping is a journalist’s forte (If I may be excused).  The tea stall tends to offer enough fodder to chew, especially when somebody is referring to an article appearing in a newspaper.  But what I heard, for once, led me to some introspection. The guy was talking about an article (or story, as it is referred to) that had appeared that day.  The story talked about some city-based industrialists joining hands to construct a ‘state-of-the-art’ old-age home with ‘five star facilities’.   It further said that the need for such an old-age home is felt because of NRIs leaving the country with their parents behind.  These NRIs can anyways afford to enroll their parents at this upcoming high class old-age home. 

As I tried to eavesdrop further, I found the guy was leaving for the US (where else?) and was planning to shift his mom to a “better place”. I know there are many who would argue that these elders are much better off in some old-age home rather than being ill-treated or trampled by their wards.  But the only question that comes to my mind in such a situation is: why does such a situation arise at all?  I mean, why, as children, do people have to be so intolerable? 

I remember reading about a senior citizen who was applying for a reverse mortgage but was scared to tell his son about his decision.   For those who came late, here’s something on reverse mortgages: In the reverse mortgage, senior citizens (borrowers), who own a house property, but do not have regular income, can mortgage the same with the lender (a scheduled bank or a housing finance company-HFC). In return, the lender makes periodic payment to the borrowers during their lifetime.  Inspite of mortgaging the house property, the borrower can continue to stay in it during his entire life span and continue to receive regular flows of income from the lender as well. Also, since the borrower doesn’t have to service the loan, he need not bother about repaying the ‘borrowed amount’ to the lender. 

Saddening it is that some senior citizens have to opt for reverse mortgages inspite of having children who earn well.  More and more number of senior citizens have to go through this insecurity and end up opting for such financial instruments. 

Celent, a global consultancy firm, reports that the reverse mortgage services market will be USD 113 billion by 2015 in India, nearly triple from the current USD 39 billion. I am not against anybody setting up a five-star old-age home or offering reverse mortgage services.  But my only question is: Can we do something to lessen the need for such initiatives?

Tags: children, five-star, Old age home, parents, reverse mortgage, senior citizens

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Articles, Relationships, Society, Troubles & Problems, Vinay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.