Retirement community is possibly the only option that allows women to retire

What is a retirement community? Is it just a fancy name for an old-age home? With the population of citizens over the age of 60 in India crossing 10% of the total population (approximately 150 crore), and the number expected to grow in the coming decades, conversations about retirement communities are common. The Hindu set out to find answers to these questions by visiting retirement communities and interacting with the residents. Simply put, a retirement community is a residential complex for senior citizens where the services include food (at home or in a dining hall), housekeeping services (home and common areas), and medical care, if and when necessary.

- 

A retirement community is nowhere close to the old-age homes that are associated with being the final refuge of destitute people and parents abandoned by their children. On the contrary, it is a place where senior citizens shift to in a bid to lead a life of quality independent of their children while acknowledging the need for some sort of help in view of their advancing age.

When did old-age homes make way for retirement communities?

Dr. Uma Maheshwari Yuvaraj, Joint Managing Director of Ananya Group that operates Ananya's Nana Nani Homes in Coimbatore, credits former UNICEF official A.V. Ramaswamy for setting up the first retirement community. Its success led to more such communities, and the concept spread to other parts of India. But, even today, Coimbatore has the largest concentration of retirement communities in India. Achal Sridharan, founder of CovaiCare who was among the first ones to follow in the footsteps of A.V. Ramaswamy, believes that the growth and popularity of retirement communities was partly due to the Y2K problem. "Just before the year 2000, a lot of well-educated youngsters got jobs abroad helping the world deal with the Y2K problem. While they got an opportunity to settle outside India, they did not like the idea of their parents not being looked after in their old age. The solution came in the form of retirement communities. The children were at peace knowing that their parents were cared for in retirement communities and did not have to deal with daily chores," he explains.

How did the concept take off?