Smart Wellness Centre for elderly to come up at BMC-Bhawani Mall

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disability (SSEPD) Department in association with Tata Trust is going to start a Smart Wellness Centre for the senior citizens at BMC-Bhawani Mall in Saheed Nagar, which will also be managed and run by the senior citizens themselves.

Aptly named Anand (happiness), the facility will be of 15,000 square feet area and will have commercial outlets, health-care centre, counters to facilitate Aadhar, PAN and Voter’s Ids for senior citizens besides recreational zones with a library or reading room like facility.

SSEPD Department Joint Secretary, Debaprasad Dash said the innovative centre would be a hub to facilitate commercial, recreational and activity based centre to showcase the world that senior citizens remain productive even after retirement and this would be replicated in several other places across the city making the model a ‘hub and spoke model’.

If everything goes smoothly, then the model would also be taken to district headquarter towns as well, he added.

Dash hinted at the project while speaking at a stakeholders meeting on ‘Active ageing and issues of senior citizens’ organised at BMC Conference hall by Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited.

He also added that while Tata Trust will be the main force behind designing the working model of the first outlet at BMC-Bhawani Mall in Saheed Nagar, it would also do the selection of the outlets for their opening at the Smart Wellness Centre for food, beverages like tea and coffee and companies dealing with ayurvedic products and processes to distress elderly, relax and enjoy life.

As per the model, which has been submitted to the Odisha Government for approval, the SSEPD Department and Tata Trust will help the first Anand outlet to run for 5 years.

After that, the elderly will have to organise everything -rent, electricity charges, business management and implementing ideas to draw crowd and people to the place, so that the model would become economically sustainable and replicable.

The SSEPD Department will spend for the design, interior and other additional things to make the place vibrant and happening-looking for the senior citizens.

This unique place would also attract people from the silver age bracket to feel happy and comfortable and spend quality time with their peer groups as many people in that age group are spending lonely life with sons and daughters keeping away in career pursuits and challenges of competitive life.