Home to more than 25 inmates and 8 staff members, the building of the old age home has visible cracks in all the walls.
One of the worst earthquakes in Nepal in over eight decades claiming over 3,000 lives has been giving sleepless nights to inmates of old age home in North West Delhi's Lampur.
Delhi too has received several tremors in the past two days; and the fact that their old age home is not in a condition to survive even a mid-intenstity quake has been troubling the senior citizens living here. "Many of us can not sleep at night as we are scared of possibility of an earthquake. We are living in a crumbling building and nobody cares for us. Abandoned by families and circumstances, even the government has abandoned us now,” complains Dalsina, 72 an inmate.
Home to more than 25 inmates and 8 staff members, the building of the old age home has visible cracks in all the walls. Besides, two staffers of the neighbouring Beggar Home also live in the same premises. Out of the 25 inmates, 7 are in such condition that they can not even walk without support. Two inmates are deaf & dumb and one is blind. The caretaker also confesses that he would be unable to rescue all the members in case of any emergency situation.
According to the NGO that takes care of the old age home, the buildings are more than 15-20 years old and was handed over to them by the social welfare department of the state government to run the home. However, since then, the state government has always been ignorant towards the condition of the old age home
"I have written many letters to the department but they never reply. The building is in dilapidated state and needs immediate renovation but we are forced to keep the inmates here as we have no other choice,” explains Puneet Prasad, Caretaker.
Due to lack of funds, the NGO officials say that they are having a tough time managing the home. "We are already short of of funds as state government does not fend for our needs. We can not afford to have much staff. Only seven of us can not gurantee to manage in an earthquake like situation," admits the caretaker.
iamin had earlier reported about how the old age house is not getting government funds. Read the story here.
This story was first published at iamin.in. For more stories from across India, visit their website.
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