'Economically unviable' Cheshire Homes making do with skeletal staff as donors not keen on funding institution
The last inmate joined Cheshire Homes in 2007. Pics/Milind Saurkar
An ominous silence greets Kashmira Desai when she walks into Cheshire Homes in Andheri East. It wasn't too long ago that laughter a filled the air in this home for persons with disabilities. Today, the 61-year-old landmark institution is crippled by fears of closure, owing to a shortage of funds.
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Dr Bakulesh Mehta, secretary of the Cheshire Disability Trust
Once a flourishing shelter with a set of dedicated nuns and volunteers who took care of 50-odd persons with disabilities, Cheshire Homes is now scraping through with a skeletal staff of five - four caretakers and a cook. The number of inmates has also dropped down to 18. No new inmate has been admitted since 2007. Sources say inmates are being nudged into leaving the shelter.
The appeal for help in the brochure
Funds channelled into childcare
Sanjay Munngi, one of the caretakers who has been with Cheshire Homes for over six years, says the institution had expanded its services into providing day care for over 50 disabled children and had taken tremendous strides in vocational and skill development of up to 3,000 children from neighbouring slums, but its core speciality of giving a home to the disabled has diminished. He says most of the corporate and individual donors of Cheshire Disability Trust, which runs the home, are more keen on funding these child-oriented programmes. "We have estimated that it takes up to Rs 2 lakh per annum for a single inmate, which includes his full medical expenses, lodging and boarding. The entire exercise is no longer economically viable for us."
In a desperate attempt, the institution has printed a catalogue with photographs of their inmates, in the age group of 20-70, with their profiles to attract individual sponsorships, either on long- or short term basis.
No new admission
Dr Bakulesh Mehta, emergency doctor on call and secretary of Cheshire Disability Trust that runs the India operations of Leonard Cheshire Disability (see box), justifies the pruning of staff strength as a change in the policy of the organisation. "While we have rehabilitated a few of our inmates, we stopped admitting new cases a while ago."
Dr Mehta, whose father, Dr Ravi Patel, had been associated with the organisation since the time of inception, claims that inmates are not being forced to leave. "When we were running a full house, we hired nuns on a contract basis.
With the change in policy, the number of inmates came down and so did the requirement [for caretakers]. But, the inmates are welcome to live here as long as they want."
Desai, an independent events organiser who has been visiting the home as a donor for the past 35 years, cautions that if immediate remedial measures are not taken, then the disabled inmates may soon find themselves homeless.
"I recollect those days when the home was lively. Now, the atmosphere is totally different. When I visited the home with food last week, there weren't enough utensils to go around. They need volunteers, donors or whatever it takes to revive the place. The lives of numerous helpless people are at stake."
A legacy that goes back 61 years
Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, a highly decorated World War II pilot of Royal Air Force, UK, founded a hospice after resigning from service. It grew into the charity, Leonard Cheshire Disability, after he found one of his co-officers with disability discharged from the army hospital and with nowhere to go. After meeting PM Jawaharlal Nehru, he started the first Cheshire Homes in Mumbai in 1956.
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