PIONEER INSTITUTE OF

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES, INDORE

CASE STUDY
“Helpage india – Helping The Old And Aged
Live A Life of Self – Respect”

GUIDED BY – SUBMITTED BY –
PROF. VIDUSHI SHARMA VED PRAKASH BHARDWAJ

PROF. NIDHI KOTHARI MBA IV “Q”

INTRODUCTION
HelpAge India is working for the cause and care of Older Persons, with the aim to improve the
quality of their lives and empowering them. 

HelpAge India voice the needs of India’s 90 million “grey” population, and directly impact the
lives of 15 lakh elders through our services every year.

It advocate with national & local government to bring about policy that is beneficial to the elderly.

It makes society aware of the concerns of the aged and promote better understanding of ageing
issues.

It helps the elderly become aware of their own rights so that they get their due and are able to
play an active role in society.
From Welfare to Development
Over the years HelpAge India has changed its orientation from implementing welfare projects to
those that focus on development. It now lays stress on income-generation and micro-credit
projects that enable the participation of Older Persons in the mainstream of society.

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 the
minto the mainstream of society rather than being marginalized to the fringes.
Aims & Objectives

 To foster the welfare of the aged in India especially the needy aged 
 To raise funds for projects which assist the elderly irrespective of cast or creed 
 To create in the younger generation and in society a social awareness about the
problems of the elderly in India today 

Advocacy

 HelpAge India maintains active liaison with both the Central and State Governments for
advocating the cause of the elderly 
 HelpAge India is a member of the National Council of Older Persons in the Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment. 
 It is represented at the Working Committee of National Council 
 The organisation has also been represented on the Working Group for recommending
Government thrusts and policies for the Eight and Ninth Five Year Plans 
 It has successfully pressed for travel and tax concessions and other benefits for the
elderly
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
This case is based on the concept of service marketing and it is related to NGO”S which are the
social welfare organizations. NGO”S involved in and dedicated to the task of social welfare,
charity and development of the weaker section, women and children, socially backward citizens
of the world, the upliftment of socially depraved, economically deprived and physically
challenged, the old and the infirm operate as the non-profit charity organizations.

In this case given that the India’s 90 million grey population to help them live with dignity,
independence & self-fulfillment. In a country of 90 million older persons, 335 live below the
poverty line, 90% are from the organized sector with no social security, and 73% are illiterate &
dependent on physical labour. Helpage reaches out to the underprivileged elderly through
various services in the areas of financial, health, and emotional security.

SEGMENTATION

It is very difficult to segmentise the NGO’s marketing services, as charity is universal and can be
reached to anyone and in any part of the world. But segmentation is essential to understand and
identify in which the NGO and the social service organization will be mainly operating. This
helps in approaching the right segment of the people in dire need, and it is also helps in getting
connected to the right sources of the funding and other resources.

The geographic segmentation can be done by identifying the national, regional and local NGOs.

MARKETING MIX ( 7 P’S )

PRODUCT

The product for helpage india is obviously its objectives of the actual formation of the NGO. This
product, which actually then needs to be marketed and the services of social upliftment attached
to it have to be presented in its entirely to all the customers of the NGO.the value enhancement
to theservices and the product can be achieved by way of informative articles in print,
brochures, calenders, diaries, and other point of display materials.

PRICE

The Helpage india get their funding for their social welfare and charity works from many of the
national and international government and private agencies. The funds are arranged by way of
goods and fancy products, etc., manufactured by the members of Helpage india.

Helpage india also depends on donations and legacies to fund its services and activities.
Resources are raised from –

1- Individuals
2- Corporate and business house
3- Trusts and foundations
4- Bi-lateral and multi-lateral funders – like international donors and funding agencies.
PROMOTION

Helpage provides services such as Elder Helplines, Physio care, Mobile Medicare Unit (MMU)
program. The MMU service in some ares not only provides basic health cars, but is also delving
into initiative such as providing disabilities aids, shelter assistense, yoga, specialsed home visit,
and provision of psychological therapy among others.

PLACE

Place in NGO operation refers to the place where support and relief can reach people. The
helpage india has to do both.

PEOPLE

People are the lifeline of all kind of NGOs. The organizations need to deliver help and
assistance to the people.

PROCESS

The process of charity and social welfare is not very simple. It requires identifying the area of
the operations of the social welfare in where the organization wants to operate.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Physical evidence is created by way of presenting live proofs of the activities of the NGO. These
can be audited by other social organizations. A certified issued by the social audit organizations
becomes the physical evidence.

SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS

 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.
 HelpAge India maintains active liaison with both the Central and State Governments for
advocating the cause of the elderly 
 HelpAge India is a member of the National Council of Older Persons in the Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment. 
 It is represented at the Working Committee of National Council 
 The organisation has also been represented on the Working Group for recommending
Government thrusts and policies for the Eight and Ninth Five Year Plans 
 It has successfully pressed for travel and tax concessions and other benefits for the
elderly

WEAKNESSES

 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

OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunities in the case of Helpage india, for its weaknesses can be opportunities for the
Helpage india.

THREATS

As Helpage india is an NGO, so the challenges for an NGO’s can be threatening for them. They
are-

 Arrange basic education for all people

 Reduce the rural and urban gap in education, and other standards
 Eradicate the exploitation of the women, and weaker sexes.
 Ensure protection of the human rights
 Find person with the right mindset for social and charitable work
 Arrange training and education for personnel to meet the stringent international demand.
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS
 Discuss with the private companies to work out realistically the expenditure involved in
extending these services to older persons and then find ways of sharing that
expenditure with others like state, family, company and the individual.
 Introduce community based/ cooperative models of health care, where the members
manage it by self-financing the facility.
 A Medical Claim policy at a young age (before age 50) continues by yearly renewal. It
is compulsorily terminated at age 80, after which no health cover insurance is
provided. Thus the medical insurance cover is forcibly withdrawn at age 80 when it is
required most.
 Insurance Regulation and Development Authority (IRDA) may be asked to enforce a
uniform policy on all Insurance Companies, particularly Government owned
companies, to continue medical insurance for whole life at a commensurate premium.
 The cut-off age of 55, after which no fresh medical insurance policy is provided is
arbitrary and unjustified. It discriminates against older persons. Instructions need to be
given by IRDA to the insurance companies to remove this bar.
 Community based/ cooperative modals of health care, where the members manage it
by self-financing the facility should be looked into.
 The Government controls four insurance companies (United Insurance Co., Oriental
Insurance Co., The New India Assurance Co. & National Insurance Co.) which should
be directed by Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. Their
representatives may be encouraged to work for medical insurance policies for older
persons.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Explain the concept of social welfare and charity by an NGO?
NGOs are involved in improving the lives of the downtrodden weak, poor, socially exploited and
affected people in rural and urban parts of the country. These people look towards the NGO as
godsend. They also believe that the NGOs have come to fulfill the much desired lack of status,
gap, need and the shortcomings in their lives. They obviously extend full cooperation to the
NGO in helping them implement their programs.

The globalization has raised the expectations of those affected as they now believe that the
charity of the international organizations can be accessible to the NGOs and other social
organizations easily.

The introduction of internet, the websitesof the charity organization, their funding positions and
their utilisation of the funds in different operations. The transparency of the charitable works and
the utilization of funds has become the need of the day for each of the social organizations. The
NGO now has to account for the activities on the open forums, to keep various interests
informed. That definitely poses a major challenge to the ones who were not used to the idea of
openness.

The concept of charity and social welfare has moved from help to now mean the help of and
from the international community. The world has become a smaller village with 70% of the
world’s poor living in rural areas, where accesses to the education of children, adult literacy and
quality education are still much lower than in their urban counterparts, rural-urban disparities are
an issue of major concern for the international community. In the urban areas the mushrooming
growth of slums, pollution, the urban poor, the abandoned and the socially deprived are
increasing in the numbers all over the globe.

Explain how an NGO can market its services to arrange funds for its activities?

MARKETING MIX ( 7 P’S )

PRODUCT

The product for helpage india is obviously its objectives of the actual formation of the NGO. This
product, which actually then needs to be marketed and the services of social upliftment attached
to it have to be presented in its entirely to all the customers of the NGO.the value enhancement
to theservices and the product can be achieved by way of informative articles in print,
brochures, calenders, diaries, and other point of display materials.

PRICE

The Helpage india get their funding for their social welfare and charity works from many of the
national and international government and private agencies. The funds are arranged by way of
goods and fancy products, etc., manufactured by the members of Helpage india.

Helpage india also depends on donations and legacies to fund its services and activities.
Resources are raised from –

1- Individuals
2- Corporate and business house
3- Trusts and foundations
4- Bi-lateral and multi-lateral funders – like international donors and funding agencies.

PROMOTION

Helpage provides services such as Elder Helplines, Physio care, Mobile Medicare Unit (MMU)
program. The MMU service in some ares not only provides basic health cars, but is also delving
into initiative such as providing disabilities aids, shelter assistense, yoga, specialsed home visit,
and provision of psychological therapy among others.

PLACE

Place in NGO operation refers to the place where support and relief can reach people. The
helpage india has to do both.
PEOPLE

People are the lifeline of all kind of NGOs. The organizations need to deliver help and
assistance to the people.

PROCESS

The process of charity and social welfare is not very simple. It requires identifying the area of
the operations of the social welfare in where the organization wants to operate.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Physical evidence is created by way of presenting live proofs of the activities of the NGO. These
can be audited by other social organizations. A certified issued by the social audit organizations
becomes the physical evidence.

PRESENT SITUATION
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 directaccess to the office network.
They have to use e-mail in order to maintain contact withtheir regional or area-offices. They use
cyber-cafes or handheld devices for sending andreceiving emails. HelpAge has installed a
secure connection at an initial cost of Rs. 4lakh and annual upgradation cost of Rs. 75,000 to
access e-mail from anywhere, with ahigh level of security and protection of data and contents.

LEARNING FROM THE CASE

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.