Young Turks: Startups' bid to help India's elderly

As the years go by, physical aging with unexpected onset of illnesses such as Dementia or Alzheimer's make day-to-day living a nightmare. What makes it more terrifying is living alone.

Believe it or not, three out of 10 elderly in India live alone or with another senior citizen. Majority of them are women. In most cases, children would have left in search of a better livelihood, either to live in cities or abroad.

In fact, according to an Antara Report, one out of two elderly faced mental health issues during the pandemic. "You do not know what it is like to be lonely, until you spend time alone wishing for companionship", said Ratan Tata recently.

Companionship, community and consistent care is what they crave. The neglect on our part needs urgent addressal, and it is being addressed with geriatric care evolving from just running errands for elders to engaging them online and offline with weekly events, re-invigorating their lives with dedicated residential communities and taking care of their health with assisted living and at-home care.

To discuss this, CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Tara Singh Vachani, Founder of Antara Senior Care; Saumyajit Roy, Co-Founder of Emoha Eldercare; and Neil Dsouza, Co-Founder of GetSetUp.