KOLKATA INITIATIVES
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES FOR CHANGE
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CHSJ has been working closely with community based organisations in all its activities, strengthening their operational and management capacities, introducing new skills and programmes and helping them grow and gain autonomy. This year CHSJ started a new initiative in the city of Kolkata, called Kolkata Initiatives is a city specific intervention with the primary objective to create a virtuous loop of community engagement where sections of society who can are facilitated to help those sections of society who need help. With this in mind a Senior’s Drop-in Centre was set up one slum and all the materials and most of the financial resources were raised through donations.  In addition to setting up a community based initiative, this intervention also marks CHSJ’s engagement with Seniors. With declining mortality rates India also has a rapidly growing population of seniors and there are very little support mechanisms for them. This is particularly important in urban places because the traditional family and kinship mechanisms also get disturbed. The Seniors Drop-in Centre which was set up in Shaheed Smriti has already become very popular with nearly fifty women between the ages of 65 and 80 years attending regularly. It also marks a pioneering effort at setting up a Drop-in Centre for seniors and we are documenting the process carefully. The following story highlights the importance of this centre in the lives of the elderly women.   

Eighty year old Sumitra Sarder is a regular at Shaheed Smriti Senior’s Drop-in Centre. She lives with her son and daughter-in-law who are apathetic towards her as she is not earning any more. “I was given the worst space with broken roof and they often forgot to give me food” The room was dingy and had a small cot whose legs were broken. Our worker visited her home and started a dialogue with her son and daughter in law to come to the centre. Initially Sumitra was not responsive and used to sit in the corner of the Drop-in Centre silently. Her clothes were dirty with long unclean hair and unclipped nails. Efforts were made to engage her in different activity like singing, yoga, dancing, playing indoor games. She started to respond to the activities. Sumitra now says “I love to come here. I enjoy every moment in the centre and do not want to miss it.” The situation in her family has also been improved a little but she requires continuous support which makes her life worthy to live with dignity. 

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“I love to come here.
I enjoy every moment
in the centre and do not
want to miss it.”