.

CASE STUDY -3
. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
•_ .HELPAGE INDIA*
Date of issue-26 oct
Date of submission-29 oct

The developments in medical sciences—the lowering of mortality rates and the increase
in life expectancy—have ironically led to a ‘situation where there re increasingly, a larger
number of aged people in the society. The situation in most countries of the world is that
the number of ageing people is increasing. India too, like other developing countries,
experiences a rapid ageing of the population, with estimated 60 million aged people.
Almost eight J ten of these aged people live in rural areas. The challenges that the elderly
people in society face are many. For instance, a report in the Indian context indicates the
following challenges:
• 90% of senior citizens receive no social security or medical care.
• 73% of senior citizens are illiterate and can only earn a livelihood through physical
labour, which is possible only if they are healthy in their old age.
80% of senior citizens live in rural areas with inadequate or inaccessible medical
facilities; many are unable to access the medical facilities because of reduced mobility in
the old age.
• 55% of women over the age of 60 are widows with no means of support.
The elderly people, or senior citizens, are the fastest growing segment of the Indian
society. By 2025, the population of the elderly is expected to reach 1 77 million.
Unlike many developed countries, India does hot have an effective security net for the
elderly people. There have been sporadic attempts by governments at the central and state
levels to pay old- age pensions, but like most government schemes, there is a lot ‘of
leakage of funds and inefficiency.
There is also a tack of post-retirement avenues for f-re-employment.
Socio-economic developments such as urbanization, modernization, and globalization
have impacted the economic structure and led to an erosion of societal values and the
weakening of social institutions such as the joint family. The changing mores of society
have created a chasm between generations. The intergenerational differences have
created a situation where the younger people are involved in education, career building
and .establishing themselves in life, ending up ignoring the needs of the elderly among
them. The older generation is caught between a society which cares little for them and the
absence of social security, leading them to a situation where they are left to fend for
themselves. It is in this context that institutions such as Help Age India play a positive
role in society.
Help Age India, established in 1978, is a secular, not-for-profit, non-governmental
organization, registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. Its mission is stated
as; ‘to work for the cause and care of the disadvantaged older person and to improve their
quality of life’. The three core values that guide Help Age India’s work are rights, relief
and resources. Help Age India is one of the founder- members of Help Age
international, ,a body of 51 nations representing the cause of the elderly at the United
Nations, It is also a member of the International Federation on Ageing.
The organisation of Help Age India consists of a head office at New Delhi, with four
regional and thirty-three area offices situated all over India. The governing body of the
organization, consists if ten distinguished people from different walks of life. Besides the
governing body, there are three committees: the operations committee, the business
development committee, and the audit committee. The CEO, Mr. Mathew Cherian
oversees the planning and implementation of policies and programmes, with the support
of five directors. The regional directors are responsible for their own regions. The
program division at the head office chooses the partner agencies to provide the services to
the elderly people.
Help Age India raises resources to perform three types of functions:
 Advocacy about policies for the elderly persons with the national, and local
governments
 Creating awareness in society about the concerns, of the aged and promote better
understanding of ageing issues
 Help the elderly persons become aware .of their own rights so that they get their due
and are able to play an active role in society
. The major programmes undertaken by HelpAge India include mobile medicare units,
ophthalmic cafe for performing cataract surgeries, Adopt-a-Gran, support to old-age
homes, day care centres, income generation and disaster relief.
The business model of HelpAge India is based on revenue generation through grants and
donations from international and national sources. Nearly half of the donations come
from international donors. About a fifth of the donors are individuals. The sources of
contributions come from fund raising activities that include direct mail, school
fundraising, corporate fundraising, sale of greeting cards ,acting as corporate agent for
insurance, organizing events and establishing a shop-for-a-cause that sells gifts made by
disadvantaged people.
A review report on the activities of HelpAge India enumerates its strong points as
below:
• Wide Reach and Impact Help Age India has been able to impact the lives of a large
number of elderly people and their families by adopting a holistic approach that provides
immediate relief as well as long-term sustainable improvement.
• Effective Partnerships in Development HelpAge India has evolved as a development
support agency through creating partner agencies, that is funded to implement the
projects.
• High Degree of Charitable Commitment Typically non-profit organizations spend a lot
on overhead and administrative Costs. But Help Age India is able to put nearly eighty-
five per cent of the funds towards actual project implementation.
• Focus on Efficiency and Transparency The partner agencies are chosen carefully and
monitored thoroughly. This results in increased efficiency and low overheads. Project
implementation through partnerships increases efficiency and cuts down on overhead
costs.
• Quality of Management The management quality of HelpAge India is good and there
are a lot of committed people. New employees are also trained to be sensitive to the
mission of the organisation.
With a wide spread of activities and being a non-governmental organisation having
limited funding, HelpAge India has adopted modern means of information technology
and networking. Most of the HelpAge executives work in the field and have no direct
access to the office network. They have to use e-mail in order to maintain contact with
their regional or area-offices. They use cyber-cafes or handheld devices for sending and
receiving emails. HelpAge has installed a secure connection at an initial cost of Rs. 4
lakh and annual upgradation cost of Rs. 75,000 to access e-mail from anywhere, with a
high level of security and protection of data and contents.
The nature of non-profit organizations demands certain requirements. Among these,
transparency - of operations and funds management is a major one. There are many
NGOs that are accused or suspected of misappropriating funds for personal benefit.
HelpAge India is conscious of this fact and gives high priority to information disclosure.
The audited financial statements and the annual report are available on its website The -
financial statements give a detailed account of the expenditure on individual projects. The
expenses on travel and salaries of its employees and CEO .are also mentioned. The
individual donors are provided information regarding the use of the funds donated by
them.
- The functional approach at HelpAge India consists of developing projects based on the
assessment of the needs of its target community rather than on implementing them
directly. The implementation takes- place through the partner agencies. Rather than
outright grants, it supports income generation projects for the elderly people. The success
of implementation critically depends on the identification and appointment of partner
agencies. The officers of HelpAge India physically inspect the proposed agencies and
check on their management to ensure that they are not family-run set-ups established for
personal gains. HelpAge India works presently, with nearly 400 partner agencies. These
include, for instance, about 150 charitable eye hospitals that act as partner agencies for
the ophthalmic care programme.
HélpAge India with its slogan of ‘fighting isolation, poverty and neglect’ moves on its
mission of providing ‘equal rights, dignity for elders’. It foresees its future activities in
the area of ‘eights based advocacy for a better life for the elderly people by bringing them
into the mainstream of society rather than being marginalized to the fringes.

Questions:
1. What is the organizational profile of HelpAge India?
1. In your opinion, what is the distinctive competence of HelpAge India? -
2. Prepare a strategic advantage profile for HelpAge India.
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