Shunting aside the elderly
Jun 10, 2008 04:30 AM
By Sonya Fatah
Special to the Star
NEW DELHI–The black-and-white photographs carefully taped onto the inside of the wooden bedroom door capture a distant past. In one of them, a younger Rita Sikand, now 86, is dressed in a sari, her lips richly painted, and laughing as she waltzes in her husband's arms. In another, dressed in lily white, she is watching a polo match.
Today, abandoned by her daughters, Sikand rarely has visitors. Her companions, lying neatly in the middle of her bed, are a motley collection of stuffed dolls and teddy bears.
Sikand's experience is no longer unusual in India. Like a growing number of elderly Indians, she is living out her old age away from friends and family in a seniors' home, counting on the kindness of strangers – salaried staff and volunteers from neighbourhood schools – to see her through.
Economic opportunities, labour migration and an increasing number of women in the workplace, are slowly breaking down the once sacred traditional family system.
With life expectancy on the rise and with India lacking a social security net for its growing population of seniors, an increasing number of the elderly are finding themselves in the throes of loneliness – abandoned, destitute and on the fringes of society.
"There's a sizeable shift in family structure, and the centre of gravity is moving toward nuclear families" with seniors no longer wanted by their children for various reasons, said Mathew Cherian, chief executive of Help Age India, an international non-profit organization that advocates for the changing needs of elderly people.
More than 75 million elderly people live in India, according to the 2001 census, more than twice Canada's entire population.
While many elderly people continue to live with their children, the increasing number of needy senior citizens provoked a response from the Indian government last year.
In December 2007 it passed a law to protect the welfare of seniors. Under the law, the elderly can file applications against their children if they have taken their property and thrown them out.
But such protection is seen as largely cosmetic.
"Think about it," said S.P. Agarwal, 77, who once taught university-level physics, and now lives at Gharaunda, a free home set up on the outskirts of New Delhi by the Paras Foundation trust. "How many parents are going to take their children to court? Even if they do, how many years will it take for litigation?"
There are no simple solutions for the growing alienation of India's sizeable population of seniors.
"You can't legislate love," said Cherian talking about government measures. One thing Help Age is gunning for, however, is an All India pension plan that would give seniors financial independence.
Abridged
SOURCE: TheStar
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