How we're setting up age-friendly villages in India

An age-friendly village for older people in vulnerable situations

Following the devastating Asian tsunami in 2004, Age UK helped its sister organisation HelpAge India to set up an age-friendly village for older people whose homes had been destroyed and whose families had been killed.

This age-friendly village - called the Tamaraikulam Elders' Village (TEV) is a perfect example of how an emergency relief programme can turn into long-term support for the most vulnerable sectors of society.

The village now accepts older people who have no means of support or who are faced with abuse or neglect. As one of its residents, Mrs Gandhi, explains, 'My family neglected me, so I wanted to come here.'

A village designed for comfort

HelpAge India was keen to ensure that they built a village in which older people would feel comfortable, so the architects of the project spent six months in the surrounding villages to see how people in later life spent their time.

Sathiya Babu, the Deputy Project Director of HelpAge India in Cuddalore, commented, 'They found three kinds of places where they spend time. First, a community space, so we have a pond where they can come and chat. Also, there are outside spaces in the homes so if people feel like eating outside and talking to their neighbours, they can.

'Lastly, there is private space. Whenever they want to have a rest, they have privacy.'

'Lotus pond village'

TEV provides 100 older people with a safe place to live, healthcare, emotional security, a good diet and professional care and support.

The village consists of:

• a collection of cottages for residents to live in,
• a doctor's surgery,
• a team of care-givers,
• a large kitchen,
• a communal dining room,
• and an exercise room that doubles up as a room for worship.

There is also a lotus pond on site, from which the village takes its name - 'tamaraikulam' means lotus pond in Tamil, the language spoken in the state in which TEV is located.

A self-sustaining community

The community is intended to be self-sustaining, where more able-bodied residents help the less able-bodied in a family environment.

The 'active' residents organise into voluntary committees, covering areas such as food preparation and income-generating activities. The residents produce items such as toiletries, banana-leaf rope, straw bags and pickles, which they sell in order to raise money for TEV. There is a guest-house on-site, from which they also raise money from paying visitors.

TEV aims to become self-sufficient in terms of both food and energy. The eco-friendly TEV building has solar panels to provide hot water and electricity, and residents raise livestock, look after a fish pond, a vegetable plot, a greenhouse and a rice paddy.

A model that is providing hope for the future

From the destruction and devastation of the tsunami, people in later life have been given a new home, providing security and hope for the future, through the work of HelpAge India.

The local government is keen to replicate the TEV model elsewhere, and has already bought land on which to build two new age-friendly villages.

One of the residents, Srinivasan, says, 'There is no difference between us and a traditional family now. In a normal family, you have four or five people. Here there are eighty or more...

'There is no home like this. Even sons and daughters don't take care of older people like this. We have prayers, lunch, free accommodation, everything. They have provided us with more than I expected.

'Nobody would have helped us because of our caste, but HelpAge helped us.'