While most of us do not get to spend much time with them owing to the daily grind of our tight professional schedules, we can, nevertheless, certainly provide them a comfortable living by making a few modifications in our homes.
Surveys show that, overwhelmingly, people want to grow old in their own homes. But such aging-in-place, as many experts call it, is made very difficult by a widespread lack of agefriendly home modifications.
Anil Dewan of the School of Planning and Architecture, says: "We , in India, build homes for people who think that they will never grow old. We have to design buildings so that senior citizens can live there without exerting every muscle to get around the house or access the facilities like bathrooms, toilets, or wardrobes. There's a need for agefriendly housing that employs what are called 'universal design principles'."
"The home must become a technologically-enabled hub for old people.The successful aging-in-place home will feature remote sensing and communications tools, interactive testing and medical diagnostic devices, and online access to community support and social activities," Sanjay Khanna, the director of Kailash Nath Developers Pvt Ltd, says.
"If customers tell us beforehand that there will be senior citizens in their homes, we make those houses senior-citizens friendly," Ajay Singal, the director of Avalon Group, says. "The rooms where they stay should be well ventilated. Elderly people using wheelchairs must be able to get through doors and have an unobstructed path to the toilet."
There can be no two opinions that the stakeholders of realty sector need to accommodate the needs of senior citizens when they design residential projects. These are the people who have given their lives to the society and they deserve better and peaceful life after retirement.
Ajay Monga, an architect, says that realty firms must take care of the interests of people with disabilities as well as senior citizens while designing their projects.
"It is really sad that even though the real-estate sector has made huge strides in India, not many real estatefirms make accessible buildings for the elderly or the people with disabilities. For instance, there are not many building where one can find lifts in which wheelerchairs can enter. Cabinets are not fixed in bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchens at a height that is easily accessible to them."
Sunil Jindal, the chief executive officer of SVP group, candidly agrees that not many buildings are made considering the interests of either senior citizens or people with disabilities. He, however, says that all the established realty firms ensure that lifts are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs.
Some experts say that we do not see many disabled-friendly buildings as our town planners and architects are not really trained to design such type of residential buildings, malls or commercial complexes.
Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com
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