Intergenerational Care: Need of the hour

Shakespeare through his famous play ‘As you Like It’ divides a man's life into seven stages-First being infancy and last being old age. Developing nations which often have a rich cultural heritage are rapidly changing their character to meet with the fast moving life. The technological advancement has led to increment in age expectancy. The change in lifestyle and the compulsion of modern working conditions led to a breakdown of the traditional family systems in urban areas making them more nuclear in nature with every passing phase. On the other hand thousands of homeless children in the urban areas are growing up under dreadful conditions. Preserving them is a big challenge. These children are most vulnerable to crime, slavery and sexual exploitations. Intergenerational care is the practice of bringing the young and elderly together by introducing nurseries and care homes to one another. This new style of care is revolutionizing care homes worldwide and participants swear by the practice. In the Indian context, these can be spoken in terms of old age homes and orphanages. Old Age Home and Orphanage are the two different public spaces serving the same purpose of guiding and developing the lives of two extreme age groups with same psychological needs. Both the buildings have traditionally played a significant role in shaping the life of both elderly and orphans in their own independent ways. This paper elaborates the need of developing a Home for the elders along with a child care institute as a solution for the elderly and orphans so that they can fight their crisis in midst of a comfortable and conducive environment depending on each other.