Lonely, in need of care
Lonely, in need of care
Sexagenarian Duli Begum is an invalid in need of constant care. Once an owner of 13 decimals of land, she now has practically no place to go and no one to look after her.
Her five daughters who now own the land are too busy with their own lives to take her responsibility.
They have been looking for a place where their mother could live. However, none of the old homes in the country, whether run by the government or NGOs, provides space for bed-ridden or invalid old citizens.
She now lives with her second daughter in Tangail who finds it utterly difficult to provide her bed-ridden mother with the care she requires.
"I have to work from morning till evening at my office. So who would feed my mother and take her to the toilet during the day?" said one of Duli's daughters, who is a cleaner at a private firm in the capital.
Another daughter, wishing anonymity, said she cannot afford to keep an attendant with her meagre income. "My mother asked us to poison her since she has become a burden to all of us. But how can we do so?" she said.
Duli Begum does not get the monthly old age allowance of Tk 400 given by the government either. Even if she did, her daughters could not afford to keep an attendant or pay for her medicine with that amount.
A S M Atiqur Rahman, secretary general of Bangladesh Association for the Aged and Institute of Geriatric Medicine (BAAIGM) said it is unfortunate that we cannot support the frail and the fragile with our capacity.
Starting in 1960, BAAIGM opened an old home in the capital's Agargaon in the early 1990s, which can accommodate 50 retired senior citizens with no disabling health conditions, aged from 60 to 80 years. It requires one to pay between Tk 4,000 and Tk 8,000 a month for a room and other services including three meals a day.
For those who cannot pay there is a privately run old rehabilitation centre in Gazipur, but that centre too only admits people who are able to move around. Established in 1987 in Uttara, it later shifted to Gazipur in the early 1990s.
"Bed-ridden people need constant care and it is also expensive," said Khatib Abdul Zahid Mukul, founding chairman of the centre.
"We take care of those who live here and later fall sick, but it is not possible to do the same for invalid old people who would number in hundreds," said Mukul, whose centre has a capacity of 1,200 people and current occupancy of about 300 people.
The government old homes in Faridpur and Barisal also do not provide support to bed-ridden old people.
Md Hossain Molla, joint secretary to the ministry of social welfare, said services necessary for bed-ridden old people could not be provided due to our shortage of manpower.
"We still have a plan for invalid old people and we're working on it," said Molla.
The picture, however, is not as abysmal for people with health and a little money.
Mira Chowdhury, a former lecturer of economics at a college in Khulna, has the capability to pay for her expenses. She is not disabled either.
Octogenarian Mira owned a six-storied building in the capital's Dilu Road. With her only son living abroad and most of her close relations living across the border in India, widowed Mira had no option other than moving to the old home in Agargaon.
"I used to receive constant threats from local goons who wanted to grab my house," she said.
Later she moved to the home where her security and care have been ensured.
But life at the home is lonely and friendless.
"Would anyone ever choose to live here?" she asked, adding that she has been waiting for her son to return home and take her back to a family.