{"id":27669,"date":"2017-11-19T13:10:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-19T13:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/?p=27669"},"modified":"2017-11-19T13:23:20","modified_gmt":"2017-11-19T13:23:20","slug":"a-new-son-rise-in-their-sunset-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/?p=27669","title":{"rendered":"A new ‘Son-Rise\u2019 in their sunset years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sonrise01BF19nov2017\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With youngsters becoming economic migrants, Bengaluru startups are mobilising foot soldiers and caregivers who not only run errands but also provide companionship for their parents back home<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Meena Nagarjunan (81) eagerly looks forward to Tuesdays when her \u201ccare manager\u201d comes over to spend a couple of hours with her and her husband. He runs errands for them, paying the electricity, telephone bills and sometimes even goes over to the nearby South Indian restaurant to get her favourite foods.<\/p>\n

With nuclear families on the rise and more elders fending for themselves, startups are now recognising a huge opportunity, and playing the proxy child. They make available people who can buy groceries, take them to the doctor, stay with them at the hospital, help get plumbing and electrical work done, take them to the movies, plan a lunch\/dinner outing, or even just hang out with them at home.<\/p>\n

Niranjan Acharya (72) lives by himself after he lost his wife 10 years ago. Child-free and with no relatives in the city, Acharya keeps the number of his care manager close on hand at all times. When he recently went through a dental surgery, Acharya was accompanied by his care buddy who stayed with him during the procedure and dropped him back; or another time, when he was in the ICU and didn\u2019t have anyone to stay with him at the hospital. \u201cThe help makes a hu\u00adge difference. It\u2019s difficult for friends to suddenly come over and stay at the hospital. Otherwise, it can be a worrying situation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It is projected that the proportion of Indians aged 60 and above will rise from 7.5 per cent in 2010 to 11.1 per cent in 2025. In 2010, India had more than 91.6 million elderly and the number of elderly in India is projected to reach 158.7 million in 2025, which means the market for service providers for senior citizens in India is only on the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of players in the market who offer post-operative care, but there are few who offer seniors a quality life as they age. Many of them feel disconnected and lonely, and feel as if they are not adding value. We want to get rid of that mindset,\u201d says Santosh Abraham, co-founder of ElderAid Wellness.<\/p>\n

Devanshi Seth, founder of Caveo, agrees. She finds that often times their clients are fit but are in need of companionship. \u201cMost parents just lack engagement. Their children want to give them time but can\u2019t,\u201d she says. This is why they send a trained geriatric counsellor even when their clients want to go for recreational activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just send a volunteer, there\u2019s going to be no conversation. After some small talk, both of them won\u2019t know what to say or do. Many seniors often open up to counsellors about their personal lives and the counsellors know how to steer the conversation. It\u2019s a listening mode, they talk about legal matters, their younger days, things that they can\u2019t talk with their children,\u201d Seth says, adding, \u201cWe often have children telling us that their parents are depressed. However, when we go over, we find that they are just in need of company and support for day-to-day activities, and are rarely clinically depressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, requests include figuring out a celebration for a parent \u2013 a task that involves choosing the right restaurant based on their likes and dislikes, picking them up, dropping them off, and in rare cases even sharing a meal with them. \u201cWe do that only if they make a special request for it,\u201d she says. At other times, seniors ask for help with learning gadgets, taking them shopping for an hour or two and coordinating hobby classes.<\/p>\n

Abraham and his team also encourage seniors to take up hobbies. On a pilot basis, he got a volunteer to come home and teach a senior in her late 80s the violin, something she had learnt in her younger days, which Abraham felt would now help with her dementia.<\/p>\n

\"Sonrise02BF19nov2017\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE BACK STORY<\/strong><\/p>\n

These startups have most often stemmed from their personal experiences. Rahul Upadhyay\u2019s seniorshelf.com, a company aggregating products and services for the elderly, says that the essential idea is to enable children to help their parents – who are otherwise hampered by age, no matter how separated they are by the distance. \u201cThe idea came about when my mom had a mishap and the doctor recommended that I buy a blood pressure machine for her. I spent almost five hours looking all over the city for a machine and finally got one near a hospital. That incident brought out the difficulty elderly have in accessing products and services that they require. Hence the idea of a website where one can find almost all things for an elderly person in one place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Abraham and his co-founder too were in a similar situation. His parents settled in Thiruvananthapuram were keen to lead an independent life while Abraham was concerned how they would go about their day-to-day activities, which was the reason he switched roles from a corporate job to a \u201csocial enterprise\u201d. His co-founder Dr Vandana Nadig Nair, was witness to her aunts and uncles in Bengaluru with children in other cities \/ countries, who needed help and support; children who visited as frequently as once a month to tend to their parents. \u201cBut there was worry on all sides,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

MONEY TALKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

ElderAid offers packages starting at Rs 1,900 a month to Rs 7,200, which includes medical emergency responses (going along with the client in the ambulance to running around in the hospital, paying bills, buying medicines, and even staying with them for 48 hours until their children come in), filing in medical documents, weekly calls and visits during which they take them to a park, grocery store, supermarket etc. The website seniorshelf.com ties up with other partners for activities such as pilgrimages and tours\u2014one of them they offer is The Ramayana Trail in Sri Lanka, and are currently in the process of offering domestic pilgrimage services too. The pricing for Caveo\u2019s services are anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 8,000 on a monthly basis, which can include outings to a mall, grocery store, and other events.<\/p>\n

ElderCare has a subscription packages for three months, six months and a year, wherein the charges are approximately Rs 60 per day for the allocation of care buddy\/ care manager. This includes two free visits a month to assess general well-being of the senior and help with household chores.<\/p>\n

\"Santosh<\/a>
Santosh Abraham of ElderAid Wellness says elders often feel disconnected and lonely, and his startup looks to fill that void<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FUNDING<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Having gone live in 2015, ElderAid (which comprises a nine-member team) so far had 115 clients into the self-funded venture of Rs 20 lakh. They\u2019ve just received a round of angel funding which Abraham says will finally help them break even by the end of the year. \u201cFor the first year, we didn\u2019t even take a salary,\u201d he says.
\nCaveo went live in January 2016. Seth started with her saving of Rs 5 lakh. Currently, Caveo\u2019s services are available in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. \u201cWe\u2019ve just started breaking even three months ago,\u201d says Seth who has five permanent employees and 35 consultants and service 75 clients a month.<\/p>\n

THE CHALLENGES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seniors are hesitant to take help from an external agency. \u201cMost children make enquiries and enroll their parents. But it takes time to convince them,\u201d Abraham says. Somehow customer acquisition has been more difficult than Abraham thought it to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market is in a nascent stage and it\u2019s more reactive than proactive. Most of the customers look for such a setup only after they\u2019ve encountered a problem, in most cases the issue being a fall,\u201d Abraham says.<\/p>\n

Upadhyay points out that usually the point of contact is a family member rather than a senior. \u201cHence acceptance of the services is quite good,\u201d he says. However, \u201ca good vibe between the elderly and the caregiver is essential to ensure things stay smooth. This can be a challenge sometimes,\u201d Upadhyay adds.<\/p>\n

Five years from now, Abraham is looking at servicing various cities across India while Seth is working on a daycare centre for seniors. Seniorshelf.com is looking at expanding its offerings in the service space, legal and financial areas, which Upadhyay believes are areas in \u201ccrying need for a reliable partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

source: http:\/\/www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com \/ Bangalore Mirror \/ Home> Bangalore> Cover Story \/ by Vidya Iyengar, Bangalore Mirror Bureau \/ November 19th, 2017<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With youngsters becoming economic migrants, Bengaluru startups are mobilising foot soldiers and caregivers who not only run errands but also provide companionship for their parents back home Dr Meena Nagarjunan (81) eagerly looks forward to Tuesdays when her \u201ccare manager\u201d comes over to spend a couple of hours with her and her husband. He runs … Continue reading A new ‘Son-Rise\u2019 in their sunset years<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-economy","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27669"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27685,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27669\/revisions\/27685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}