State's Old-Age Homes Failing to Meet Demand

Kerala, often hailed for its high human development indices, is now grappling with a silent emergency: Where do the elders go when families fade away?

- POOJA NAIR @ Kozhikode

It was a Monday morning, and Tezy Jose was hooked to her phone. The founder of Divine Charitable Trust—a non-profit working for patient welfare—was tirelessly calling every old-age home she knew in the Malabar region. Her mission: To accommodate a 65-year-old woman recently abandoned by her three adult children.

But call after call ended with the same response: "No vacancy."

"I was stunned," Tezy said. "I've been in this field for more than a decade, but never have I faced such a situation. Every care home I reached out to had already exceeded capacity."

What began as a rescue effort for one woman quickly evolved into a distress call to the entire caregiving network Tezy had built over the years. She alerted fellow NGOs, support groups, and government officers, hoping someone, somewhere, had space for just one more mother.