Good Samaritans to the aid of victims of old-age home

Parsai Nath,72, a HIV patient with amputated legs, is one among the 150 mentally challenged and destitute inmates accommodated at a temporary shelter after the old-age home in Vasant Kunj area of south Delhi where he was staying was gutted in a fire last week.

"I am the only eyewitness to the entire incident, when the sparks from a short circuit caused a blaze in the plastic and tarpaulin -made tents where others like me used to live," Nath told IANS at the temporary camp.

He is receiving medical treatment for burn injuries he received in the fire. Doctors of Help Age India are providing medical assistance to the inmates who flocked to the camp after the last Friday's fire at the camp run by NGO, Earth Saviours Foundation.

Since the incident, many people, NGOs and welfare organisations have turned up to help of the senior citizens who are living in the temporary camps. Those staying in the old-age home included the people abandoned by their children, HIV patients, destitute and mentally challenged people.

The fire gutted the entire old-age home camp and two destitute, aged 27 and 60, lost their lives.

"The fire has not just destroyed all the food grain kept in the storeroom, the computers have also got burnt down, which had all the records of the people staying here," said Ravi Kalra, president of the old age home, told IANS.

"While no government organization turned up to help the victims, a lot of people living nearby, people attached to the old age home in the past years and welfare organisations have come forward to provide meals thrice a day and other basic amenities to the elderly victims," he added.

Some foreigners have also come forward to help the victims.

"I have made arrangements for the drinking water as I learnt there was acute shortage of water for the victims," Munish Bhatia, a volunteer who learnt of the incident after reading about it in the newspaper, told IANS.

"We are conducting regular checkups of the old people and also giving them medicines in advance for a week, so that if they face any health issues they would not face any scarcity of medicines," Suresh Palta, senior member Help Age India, told IANS.

The fire had also destroyed all the belongings of the elderly victims, including their clothes and the other amenities that is required for the basic survival.

"People are ready to contribute both financially and socially since they learnt about the incident," Kalra told IANS.

He said they had anyway planned to shift the old-age home to a new location in Chhattarpur, in south Delhi, as the lease of the land on which the camp was set up had ended. He said many of his friends have evinced interest in helping with setting up the camps at the new location.

"The fire was a major setback to an institution which is totally dedicated to provide a dignified life to underprivileged, downtrodden, abandoned human beings," Avikar Raj, former justice, International Court of Justice, who too lived in the old age home after his retirement, told IANS.

(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at rupesh@ians.in)