After fighting for Chandigarh care home and ACs, parents of those with learning disability struggle with Rs 42 lakh security deposit (2024)

Parents who first fought for having a group home, then for having air conditioning at the home now complain that such high rates are not being charged anywhere else in the country. They say no one realises their pain and how much expense they have incurred all through their lives owing to their wards having learning disabilities.

Monthly charges which an occupant of the group home will have to pay are high—Rs 35,000 for a suite, Rs 25,000 for a single room and Rs 16,000 for a twin sharing room—according to the parents.

“The security deposit is very high and completely without any precedent. For the new group home for persons with disabilities, the UT’s social welfare department is asking for a deposit of Rs 20–40 lakh, whereas for the Senior Citizens Home in sector 43, being run by the same department, the deposit is less than Rs 50,000,” said Satish Kumar, 80, a retired bank employee who is the caregiver for his 38-year-old son with severe mental illness.

Parents say they have analysed the security deposits of various group homes across the country and found that none of them charges anything beyond Rs 6 lakh. They accordingly proposed similar security deposits from Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh, but the Union Territory administration has rejected them.

Kulwant Singh, 65, who has a 34-year-old son with learning disabilities, says, “All the families are very concerned about the security deposit of the group home. It is a big problem for the families. The UT social welfare department is asking for a security deposit equal to 10 years’ charges. So the security deposit that needs to be paid upfront ranges from Rs 20 lakh to 42 lakh. This amount is too much and unfair.”

“No other group home in India (government, private or NGO-run) charges such a high security deposit. The Senior Citizens Home in Sector 43 asks for a security deposit of only three months’ charges. What is the point of starting a group home if the security deposit is so high that 90 per cent of the families will not be able to apply,” Singh says.

“We do not know how the UT’s social welfare department arrived at 10 years’ charges as the security deposit. How are the middle- and lower middle-class families supposed to make this very hefty deposit upfront? Why doesn’t the social welfare department charge a security deposit similar to that of the Senior Citizens Home in Sector 43?” he further says.

Tejpal Kaur, a 70-year-old mother, echoes Singh’s sentiment. “What is the point of establishing a government-run group home for people with mental and intellectual disabilities and then charging such a hefty security deposit that most families will be simply unable to pay?” she says.

Kaur’s daughter aged 37 has learning disabilities.

O P Asija, father of a 43-year-old man with learning disabilities, says the Union Territory seems to be catering only to top industrialists’ families.

“The proposed security deposit of Rs 20 lakh to Rs 42 lakh per person is not only high, but exorbitantly high. The UT’s director of social welfare must realise that people having even one mentally handicapped person in their family are already stressed due to many types of expenses incurred by them for this divyang. Is the UT administration planning to admit divyangs of only top-class business families or industrialists who may afford such high deposits?” Asija says.

UT’s security deposits

The security deposit will be deposited by the parents or guardians at the time of admission through a demand draft. This refundable deposit is equal to 10 years of annual fees.

Security deposits proposed by parents

According to the parents, this is comparable with the security deposit charged by similar group homes being run by NGOs in Bangalore and Delhi.