Pittsburgh_Patrika_October_2019

The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 25, No. 1, October 2019
Affordability of the Retirement Communities
in India and in Pune City
Balwant Dixit, Pittsburgh, PA E-mail: bdixit@pitt.edu
In recent years, many reports describing the beginning
of a new era in providing much needed shelter,
well prepared meals and affordable basic medical
care to an estimated 100 million senior citizens of
India have appeared in Indian papers and magazines.
Not to be outdone, several Indian publications and
organizations in the USA have given glowing reports
of the retirement communities established in India.
Simultaneously, in the USA efforts are underway
to build retirement communities for Indians with great enthusiasm. Such
stories in print give Indians living outside India and in India a sense of
accomplishment and make them feel confident that the problems senior
citizens in India are facing will rapidly be solved by just building a few
more retirement communities in India. However, if one looks at the ground
reality in India one cannot escape the conclusion that the solutions to the
difficulties the 100 million seniors in India are facing today are far from
being realistically addressed to.
The majority of India’s current population is less than 30 years old.
The traditional joint family system that works in safeguarding the social
and economic security of the seniors has been lost. With the emergence
of nuclear family, many seniors are exposed to emotional, physical and
financial insecurity. In countries like India the magnitude of economic
insecurity is very high with more than half of seniors in India are dependents.
According to the 2012 census, the population of India was 1210 million,
with a close to 100 million (8.6%) seniors. By 2026 the population
of seniors expected to increase to 175 million. Currently, there are 35-40
large independent retirement facilities or communities in India, located
in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Dehradun, Chennai, Delhi, Coimbatore, and
Pune and in few other cities. The cost of 1BR and 2BR condos in
these communities ranges from Rs. 45 lakhs ($50,000) to Rs. 15 crores
($250,000). In addition, monthly service charges range from Rs. 35,000
to 80,000. However, the demand is outstripping the supply by such a
wide margin that facilities are sold out before even they are completed.
Assisted care, Nursing Care, Alzheimer and Memory Care services are
also now available at some of the retirement communities, but costs are
very high. Nationally, with the average occupation ranging from 300 to
600 seniors in each of these facilities they can accommodate not more than
15,000 seniors. Usually, the buyers of condos in such facilities are from
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