Life expectancy is steadily increasing, but cities are no longer safe nor friendly neighbors a certainty. Alternative housing for the aged is a practical lifestyle solution that developers are now ready to provide. The fading joint family system in India and other innumerable factors have given rise to west-inspired phenomena of old age homes. Surprising cost of living and scanty return on savings have almost pushed these senior citizens on roads. Such an act has triggered the security net of the helpless, which has almost vanished in many states in India with Kerala topping the list. Elders have started walking out of their own home in search of a journey that promises peace, joy and celebration of life with a group of people who share the same boat of life (the wrecked one). However not may rather none of them receive it. A growing number of financially independent senior citizens now prefer to stay in retirement resorts instead of languishing in the quintessential old-age homes that they feel are “overcrowded” and “unsafe”. Also Insecurity, loneliness and lack of companionship — some of life’s hard-toswallow problems — become a daily reality for these elderly persons whose children either settle abroad, or in some other state, for better career opportunities. The concept of retirement resorts or complexes is gradually emerging as the most viable option among the senior members of society who are financially independent. They want to live with dignity and, above all, want to be secure. Townships and residential colonies exclusively for senior citizens are now coming up in the state where they can relocate and spend the sunset of their lives without bothering about paying electricity bills, cooking and getting prompt medical care. It is this combination of physical and emotional satisfaction that today’s retirement homes strive to provide. From an era where old-age homes were synonymous with charitable institutions
Life expectancy is steadily increasing, but cities are no longer safe nor friendly neighbors a certainty. Alternative housing for the aged is a practical lifestyle solution that developers are now ready to provide. The fading joint family system in India and other innumerable factors have given rise to west-inspired phenomena of old age homes. Surprising cost of living and scanty return on savings have almost pushed these senior citizens on roads. Such an act has triggered the security net of the helpless, which has almost vanished in many states in India with Kerala topping the list. Elders have started walking out of their own home in search of a journey that promises peace, joy and celebration of life with a group of people who share the same boat of life (the wrecked one). However not may rather none of them receive it. A growing number of financially independent senior citizens now prefer to stay in retirement resorts instead of languishing in the quintessential old-age homes that they feel are “overcrowded” and “unsafe”. Also Insecurity, loneliness and lack of companionship — some of life’s hard-toswallow problems — become a daily reality for these elderly persons whose children either settle abroad, or in some other state, for better career opportunities. The concept of retirement resorts or complexes is gradually emerging as the most viable option among the senior members of society who are financially independent. They want to live with dignity and, above all, want to be secure. Townships and residential colonies exclusively for senior citizens are now coming up in the state where they can relocate and spend the sunset of their lives without bothering about paying electricity bills, cooking and getting prompt medical care. It is this combination of physical and emotional satisfaction that today’s retirement homes strive to provide. From an era where old-age homes were synonymous with charitable institutions