India has over 8.8 million people living with dementia, with the number projected to cross 17 million by 2050. Families often face delayed diagnosis, caregiver exhaustion and limited support. The article calls for trained caregivers, respite services, specialist care in smaller cities and workplace policies to strengthen dementia care.
She still knew the recipes. Every single one – the proportions, the sequence, the small adjustments her mother had taught her sixty years ago. But she had forgotten her daughter’s name. She would ask for her three times in an hour, each time with the same hope in her voice, as if the answer might be different. Her daughter would answer, each time, as if it were the first.
This is dementia in an Indian home. Not a clinical condition contained to a ward, but a presence that reshapes every relationship around it – quietly, irreversibly, and almost always without adequate support.