About 800 persons have been trained in Geriatric care under project ‘NICE,’ a National Initiative on Care for Elderly, developed by the National Institute of Social Defense (NSID). The project ‘NICE’ was formally launched in 2000 for developing a cadre of frontline personnel of geriatric care givers in de-institutionalized settings. The process began with 3 months course for Geriatric Care givers. Subsequently, the 6-months certificate course and 1-year Post Graduate Diploma course were introduced. The institute has so far organised six 6-months certificate courses, five 3-months courses and two 1-year Post Graduate Diploma courses. During the current year 80 persons are being trained.

With the increase in the life span of the population, the number of elderly in India as elsewhere has been increasing. The proportion of elderly has grown from 5.63 per cent in 1961 to 6.58 per cent in 1991. There are around 8 crore elderly in the country today. The number of older persons is to grow to 13.7 crore by 2021. Coupled with fast changing family structure due to factors like urbanization and migration, care and welfare of elderly is emerging as a major social challenge which would need vast resources for providing support, care and treatment to the older persons. In view of this NSID, working under the aegis of Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry, started a unique course in Geriatric Care, the first of its kind in the country. The students are trained in basic geriatric, applied geriatric, geriatric nursing and health, geriatrics counseling, management and research. The Institute also provides consultations at national and regional levels on placement services for geriatric animators.

(Source: www.indiaedunews.net)