Housing the elderly in Karachi

None of the 40 elderly women living at Binte Fatima, an old people’s home in Karachi, are here by choice or chance. They have been abandoned. Left to live quiet and invisible lives together.

Maimona Shiekh, 65, was brought to Binte Fatima in 2012 by her daughter-in-law after the ageing women broke both her hands in an accident. Her son has since moved with his family to the United States. When Sheikh talks about her life, she only reminisces about the days she spent travelling the world with her husband, who worked for an oil company in Saudi Arabia. Those days are now gone. Today, if it wasn’t for Farzana Faisal, the chairperson of Binte Fatima, she would have had nowhere to go.

Sheikh, and other women like her, abandoned or without offsprings, are part of a growing number of elderly people who are in need of long-term care in Karachi. But some, unofficial, estimates 18 million people in Pakistan are aged 60, which the UN Population Fund calculates could swell up to 43.3 million by 2025.

Traditionally, in Pakistan, ageing parents have been looked after by their children. But that is not always the case. There is an urgent need, and demand, for more retirement homes. Yet, few seem to be listening. Parliamentarians rarely talk about social care for the elderly. There are no government-run centers that provide nursing homes in Karachi. The only other private ones are run by the Edhi Foundation, even though in April, the Sindh Assembly passed the much-delayed Sindh Senior Citizens Welfare Bill, 2014, which promises health and other essential services, as well as states that senior citizens lodging and homes be establishment.

Farzana Faisal set up her retirement home ten years ago after an incident near her house shook her. In 2007, she found a neighbour, an old woman, unconscious in her bathroom. There was no one to look after her in the house. Faisal quickly notified the police and thereafter stayed with the woman until she died. “I always dreamed of doing something for the people of my country,” she told Geo.TV.

For the women who live at Binte Fatima, the daily routine includes watching TV, reading, and sleeping as early as 7:00 p.m. A nurse is on-call throughout the day to check their vitals and ensure they take their medicines. Few here receive any visitors. Tragically, says Fatima, there have been instances when a resident has died and no one has come to claim her body.  

The expenses, which can run up to Rs. 300,000 per month, including rent and medical facilities, are for now being managed by the family themselves with help from some donors, explains Asad, Faisal’s son, who handles the finances. He says the organisation wants to appeal to the Sindh government to assist them, provide them with more space to expand operations. Till that help comes, Binte Fatima, underfunded and understaffed, is struggling to house women abandoned and betrayed by their own.