Making lives easier for aged by providing Elder Health Care Services in Odisha

Odisha unveiled Senior Citizens Policy in 2016 to help the elderly avail social security, health care, food, shelter, recreation and other welfare services.

Odisha Senior Citizen’s Policy 2016

A report published in 2016 points out that around 9.5% of the total population of the state is elderly of which 86% stay in rural areas and more than 45% are below the poverty line. The number is likely to increase to 13% by 2026.

It was due to this eye opening statistics that a policy was put in place to cater the Elder Health Care Services in Odisha. The finance department of the state allocated around Rs 7.4 crore for this purpose. The policy aims at ensuring that all senior citizens are cared for and respected, thereby reducing inter-generational gap, organizing pre-retirement counselling programs, adequate provision of health services for elderly.

Recent initiative

Recently in 2018 as an initiative to promote Elder Health Care Service in Odisha, The Odisha Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with disability (SSEPD) in association with Tata Trust announced that it will soon open a Smart Wellness Centre named Anand for senior citizens at BMC-Bhawani Mall, in Shaheed Nagar that will be run by the senior citizens themselves. This will showcase the world that senior citizens remain productive even after retirement. This will help them in combating depression as they will have something productive to look forward to and will meet peer groups of same age thus eradicating loneliness.

Continuous efforts by Odisha Government to encourage the Elder Health Care Services in Odisha shows how concerned the state is with the health of senior citizens thus inspiring not only its own citizens but also other states to come up with such policies that will protect and provide the elders with the required care they need.