Ignoring the silent cries of elders when they are helpless, could possibly be the worst form of emotional abuse. The lack of your physical presence could further compound their helplessness, and yours. If you are an NRI with elderly parents living in India, how do you tend to their needs?
Prashanth Reddy, a US-based businessman, and an only child of parents living in Hyderabad, faced this struggle. It led him to map out a sustainable business proposition: creating a model that combines technology and personalised home services. Which is how he founded Anvayaa (or family in Sanskrit) in Hyderabad, which has been handling parental care services since 2016. It has extended its services to Bengaluru and Chennai, and hopes to expand operations in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi by the end of this year.
“When you say ‘elder care’, the first thing that pops up is health. Having spoken to over 400 families, what we noticed is that only 30% had issues related to health. The rest were cases of loneliness and lack of emotional care,” says Prashanth, whose company recently bagged the first place among 150 companies which participated at E-Cell Summit 2020, a summit fostering innovative startup companies, organised by IIT Madras.
Emotional support
Geriatric care is a fast growing market sector in the country. Where Anvayaa differs, from many other outfits in this category, is its functionality. Prashanth says this a 360-degree programme, which enables a host of services, including healthcare, daily care and payment care to name a few.
When a client subscribes to Anvayaa, he/she is assigned a care manager, a full-time employee who acts as the immediate reference point for that particular family. The next step involves collection of data. Medical records, family history, medicine reminders and so on are fed into the server, and onto a mobile application, which is then made accessible to both parents and children.
“We have not been insisting on using mobile phones because most of them are seniors who prefer to call the Supportive Care, which is available 24x7,” Prashanth says, adding that the company has an age bracket, enrolling seniors who are 60 plus (for single mothers, it is 50 plus).
Anvayaa offers a host of services including home maintenance, transportation, laundry and payment care
An emergency plan is created for each family, and the volunteer from Anvayaa does basic assessment using records gathered from clients. “We need to be aware of every little detail in case of emergency, such as whether they have a family doctor, and contact details of close relatives. All the data is collected and stored to avoid chaos,” he says, adding, “The person living abroad gets real-time updates of every action performed during the course of an emergency.”
He adds that it is important to keep the children in the loop. “Especially when it comes to matters concerning their consent. It is quite simple; you pay, take the service and know there is someone to question,” says Prashanth, adding that Anvayaa has been supporting over 20 families in Chennai, since it launched about nine months ago.
At your fingertips
Name the service you want — home maintenance, transportation, cook services, laundry, health insurance and passport application — Anvayaa’s 60-member team will get it done, Prashanth asserts. “In most households, issues are more psychological than physical. What we noticed is that elderly people need someone to accompany them, even for something as simple as grocery shopping,” he says.
They also provide an option where clients can arrange for surprise events, say birthdays or wedding anniversaries. All they need to do is to create a reminder on the application. “A client wanted to celebrate his parents’ wedding anniversary. So we invited their relatives to the house without the parents’ knowledge and surprised them,” he says. Escorted outings, as it is called, can be worked out via payment care — a prepaid account where you can drop in money for your parents.
- The USP of Anvayaa is to integrate technology and personal care without being invasive. They are currently working on a wearable device, designed using IOT technology, to track vitals — blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen level. “It is still in the testing phase. It has a provision to make an SOS call, in case of emergency. They just have to press a button and we’ll be there.”
While Anvayaa was initially founded to assist NRIs, the company is being used increasingly by children located across the country, to look after parents in their home towns. So far, Prashanth says they are supporting over 1,000 families.
What keeps them motivated, more than the money, is the blessings that come their way, says Prashanth, adding with a smile. “I took my mom to an Anvayaa event, where she spoke to one of the family members, who is also a mother. She said, ‘I am glad that my son, who lives in the US, has found a son for me in India’.”
Anvayaa is currently operational in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. Packages differ in each city and range anywhere between ₹50,000 and ₹1.6 lakh/year. For details, visit: https://www.anvayaa. com/home or call 7288818181.
