KOCHI: As the number of people crossing the threshold into old age — 40 crore will be beyond 65 by 2020 in India according to the World Health Organisation — becoming untenable with the changing social scene in the country, three Keralites are taking up the challenge to find a solution to the ballooning problem.
Grandage Services Pvt Ltd (GSPL), the startup founded by Arun Varma, Rita Varma and Raj Narayan, offers an end-to-end solution to the looming crisis by training people on specialised geriatric care while also providing jobs to people from economically underprivileged sections of society.
Growing life expectancy levels in India means the elderly will live longer, and the youth will have to work longer to support themselves and the senior members in their families.
One way, possibly the only one, to meet this challenge is to develop a trained and reliable cadre of caregivers — a task that the three Keralites have taken up for the past 15 months.
“We believe old age is a condition and not a disease,” said Arun. “Our aim is to raise a cadre of dedicated caregivers, with the right mix of knowledge, skills and behaviour, who can help the aging population lead a healthy, happy and, most importantly, a highly rewarding life in their advancing years,” said Arun, who was part of the senior leadership at IL&FS for a decade prior to turning entrepreneur.
He established the ‘Health Initiatives’ at IL&FS besides being involved directly in the use of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) in citizen services such as Akshaya Kendras.
GSPL, which began operations in September 2016, has secured the support of the National Institute of Social Defence (NISD), an organisation under the Union Ministry for Empower and Social Justice. The certificates issued to successful candidates are co-branded by the NISD and GSPL, lending it higher credibility and value in the healthcare sector. Significantly, upon completion of the course and internship, the certified caregivers are absorbed as full-time staff by GSPL with all statutory benefits as per government norms.
While there are several organisations offering ‘home nursing’ as a service, mostly in the unorganised sector, the three founders are clear their USP will be defined by the quality of training and curriculum which will elevate these caregivers from what is often perceived as domestic helps to a higher professional ground.
“The company employs a pool of qualified nurses as its academic faculty and conducts training programmes in batches of 25 under the aegis of the NISD with assessment and guidance coming from the Health Sector Skills Council (HSSC) of the National Skill Development Corporation (NDDC),” said Raj, executive director at GSPL. He said his decision to be part of this start-up stemmed from a personal reason where his mother, suffering from dementia, could not get good care during the last days of her life.
The company has tied up with the Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences to create training content for palliative caregiving and is also in advanced stages of talks with some of Kerala’s leading private hospitals for creating a healthcare continuum for the elderly.
A big challenge though is related to people development as caregivers need to have a clearly defined career path if elderly care has to be truly successful, said Rita, who has held senior HR positions with Motorola, Deutsche Bank, McKinsey and Honeywell.
“We believe our certificate will help them secure job overseas. The GSPL also has a partnership with the Ohio State University, Columbus (United States) for Certified Nursing Assistant and Care Giver Program that would enable caregivers to enhance their income and ensure professional growth.