Organisation in city finds partners for the elderly; got 15 couples married last year.
In the autumn of their lives and lonely. With the spouse dead or separated and children busy with their own lives, the need for a companion becomes a strong and silent longing for the elderly.
There’s relief around for such people, courtesy a city-based organisation. It finds company for the elderly and prods them into wedlock if they are willing.
It was a small beginning for Kumar Deshpande Foundation, a Lower Parel-based organisation, last year. It helped 15 elderly couples get married in 2010. The word soon spread and queries started pouring in. This year, the organisation is planning a grand event to celebrate the end of loneliness for a large number of people.
The foundation has inquiries from over 3,500 senior citizens seeking prospective partners for marriage or just companions. It will hold a mass match-making ceremony in April.
Interestingly, the foundation is not a marriage bureau. But it provides legal aid and calls lawyers and marriage counsellors for the event where participants do not have to pay a fee. There is no caste barrier and members of any community can take part in this mass affair.
“Before last year’s event, I did not realise that there were so many people seeking companionship in their old age. After the function, I got several calls and letters from across the country from senior citizens. I am trying to extend the maximum help to them,” said Kumar Deshpande, the founder of the organisation.
A printing press owner, Deshpande thought of the idea after noticing the loneliness of his father-in-law after the death of his mother-in-law. With all his children out of the country, the elderly man stayed alone in Dhule.
Prospective partners gather at the event and share contact details after being introduced to each other. The foundation does not keep details of those who get married after they meet at the foundation event.
“We get to know that they have married only when they tell us. We do not force anyone to tell us whether they get married; it is their life. We only want to help them meet and take advantage of our legal services,’’ said Deshpande.
Dr Yusuf Matcheswala, head of psychiatry department, Masina Hospital, said an increasing number of single senior citizens are seeking companionship.
“It is not about sex. These couples are lonely. They are looking for partners who can take care of them. Recently, I treated a 58-year-old widow suffering from depression. During counseling, she asked me whether I could find a companion for her. Her children are staying abroad. While they send her money and she has a flat of her own, what she needed most was a companion. Living alone was making her emotionally unstable,” said Matcheswala.
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