According to the population census of 2011, the population of senior citizens is around 10 crores. Senior citizens need to be cherished and celebrated because they were the key force behind bringing this new advancement in technologies, economy, and medicine. Wherever we stand today, it is due to their hard work and intelligence that has brought us new changes and progress for us to enjoy. The Government of India provides many perks to this section of the society to make their lives much easier like they have discounts on airfare, train fare, rebates on income tax, and reductions on their health insurance, and many more. But again, there are a lot of challenges also which senior citizens face today. Medicircle is starting a new awareness series on the National Senior Citizen Day where we are interviewing people who are associated with the eldercare people and are doing great work in the field of eldercare. They are making the lives of the senior citizens much easier with their good products, offerings like apps, and services that are helping them in day-to-day life. This allows us to celebrate their accomplishments.

Mr. Prashant Reddy is the Founder and Managing Director at Anvayaa Kin Care Private Limited. He has founded Anvayaa in 2016. It is India's first and only AI and IoT-based 360-degree technology-enabled personalized senior care platform. Anvayaa has already backed quite a few national and international recognition since its inception. Prashant has started his entrepreneurial journey in 2008 and was the director at XRG consulting and other companies such as Sudaksha Education Enterprise. Mr. Reddy is an Entrepreneur and Enterprise IT Leader with 26 years of cross-industry experience providing strategic direction and development of IT solutions and products. Anvayaa has its operations in various cities in India like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Chennai and it is serving more than 6500 individuals while about 1400 families are enrolled as annual members and it is growing every month.

Challenges of senior citizens

Prashanth says, "When we talk of elder care, the first thing that comes to our mind is their health. We conducted market research, where we spoke to different families to understand their needs. To our surprise, we found that healthcare is not only a challenge for senior citizens. The major challenge is access to healthcare. The second challenge is isolation. 

All you need to know about Anvayaa

Prashanth elaborates, “Anvayaa is the one-stop solution to all your services, including healthcare, daily care, and payment care to name a few. It is a 360-degree Technology Enabled personalized senior care platform which not only provides healthcare Support but also acts as a Social and Emotional buttress that synergizes the Overall well-being of the senior citizen. These citizens want someone to accompany them while traveling, visiting the doctor, going to a temple. We are also working to ensure that payments are taken care of without the physical movement of money so that they are safe. There should be simple technology solutions for them. We can’t expect them to use mobile apps.”

Prashanth adds, “We are building variable IoT technologies where we'll have wearable technology, assisting senior citizens without the intervention. Just wear it and we take care of all their unproductive care through a wearable IoT solution. Anvayaa is a Sanskrit word that translates to a family. So, when their kids are apart from them, we become the part of a family, we become their family.” 

Valuable advice for entrepreneurs working for elder care 

Talking about the challenges Prashant explains, "geriatric care or the senior care is beyond health. The first thing as an entrepreneur we need to ensure that our products or offerings should not be complicated to use. The senior care industry includes senior old age homes, living facilities, daycare centers, logistics provider facilities. The key challenge between the senior care industry versus youth industry is the execution. Here you require a lot of patience, perseverance, and empathy, which is the most important factor. And the biggest challenge is to build trust with the senior citizens.” 

How to contact Anvayaa

Prashanth mentions, “Anybody who wants to reach out to Anvayaa, just need to call 728818181. This is one single number for all four cities we operate in currently. The second option is online signing up for your parents in anvayaa.com and can explain the happening of the parents. This is a simple way for customers or subscribers. Now for entrepreneurs, they can take franchisee and can avail services in local cities. For other types of entrepreneurs, if you are a specific service provider for eg. nursing care, hospital, or travel agent, then you can partner with Anvayaa. We will ensure that you are validated and have the right skills to provide Citizen Services for senior citizens. So that's a whole bunch of things which entrepreneurs can actually do and join hands together to make a senior citizen-friendly country.”

Message to aspiring entrepreneurs

Prashanth advises, "If somebody wants to get into Senior Care Services, there are two ways of doing it. One is Old age homes and the other is home service. In the entire country's population of senior citizens, the acceptance of citizens that I need help is the biggest challenge. The second challenge is to ensure that they're taking the service either at home or at a senior living facility. Not more than 5% are using seniors living homes or old age homes to stay. Because in our culture, we want to stay in our own homes. Those who want to set up home health care services, like nursing or a caretaker facility, need to bring some training aspects to the employees to hire, improve their empathy and listening skills. It's not just doing a job for senior citizens. There has to be an emotional connector as well. So that is what is important for an entrepreneur to be successful.”

A beautiful feeling of being blessed keeps motivating

Prashanth speaks, “We assign a dedicated care manager for each family who becomes a member of Anvayaa. It's a beautiful feeling to be blessed by a senior person. People love to work in this environment because you get a lot of blessings. Probably we have handled around 230 odd emergencies and 98% of lives were saved. By the use of technology that we have in place, we can remove panic from the emergency. The dedicated team can handle the services 24x7. We have 3250 ambulances just in four cities. Thus, we ensure that there's a timely service provider. All working staff is really happy, working in this environment.”

(Edited by Renu Gupta)