ELDER' ABUSE AWARENESS DAY

The world Elder' Abuse Awareness Day, observed on June 15, at public functions with speeches on expected lines, has a special significance for India. The breakdown of the joint-family system; sons and daughters moving away to distant places have led to elderly people living all by themselves. In India incidents of abuse and neglect of older people are increasing by the day.

Advancing age makes them vulnerable to various kinds of diseases and ailments. Not all can afford to consult private medical practitioners or admit themselves to private hospitals. Even those covered by insurance (which is not available beyond 80 or thereabouts) and by government-run schemes increasingly find themselves unable, because of their physical weakness or other forms of disability, to visit the clinics and wait there for long periods, or make arrangements for undergoing the needed tests and scans. This very often results in by helplessly watch their condition worsening to near-terminal stage. 

What is a particularly disquieting trend is the vulnerability of ageing women to oppression in various forms. Given existing structures of gender discrimination, women run a greater risk than men of becoming victims of material exploitation, financial deprivation, property grabbing, abandonment, verbal humiliation, emotional and psychological torment. While it is difficult to accurately measure the extent of the problem on a national scale, given the fact that most families deny that such abuse takes place within the four walls of their homes, we do know that the number of older people in our midst is growing.

It was in the mid-1980s that gerontological research, especially in the UK and US, began to focus on elder abuse. But more than three decades later, it remains an un-addressed concern in India, characterised by a lack of conceptual and definitional clarity. Since this crime is greatly under-reported, there is also a conspicuous absence of relevant data on it. This has resulted in the underlying causes of abuse – which could in turn have helped in developing appropriate interventions to address it – remaining unidentified. 

Yet, there is empirical evidence to suggest that in India incidents of abuse and neglect of older people are increasing by the day, both within families and institutions, and that it prevails across classes, castes and religions. Reports of such abuse have come in from every state in the country and it takes place in both rural and urban settings. Current estimates put the 60-plus population at around 90 million and India is projected to have a population of 142 million older people by 2020. Given this demographic reality, what kind of action can the country take at the individual and societal level to alleviate abuse and neglect? How can we generate thought and action from the health, welfare and criminal justice perspectives, which could contribute to a life free of violence, mistreatment and neglect for our elderly? How can we ensure greater acknowledgement and awareness of the need for older men and women to live a life of dignity and respect? How can we generate thought and action from the health, welfare and criminal justice perspectives, which could contribute to a life free of violence, mistreatment and neglect for our elderly? How can we ensure greater acknowledgement and awareness of the need for older men and women to live a life of dignity and respect?

  

Some argue that a good legal regime will help victims of abuse and neglect among the elderly. But will an act like The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 prove a deterrent to abuse? The problem here is that senior citizens, especially women, do not actively seek justice on issues like these. There is a need to raise public awareness on the issue and set up fast-track systems that will enable older persons to access justice more easily. Many of them may even be prepared to opt for voluntary exit, if it is made permissible under the law. Is that the solution? If not, what kind of institutionalised framework can be thought of to make their last days dignified and comfortable? 

The ideal solution is to establish hospices in the needed number to enable families to admit such elderly patients on payment of reasonable charges. The problem is fast assuming painful proportions. The Health and Family Welfare Ministry should take upon itself the humanitarian mission of devising suitable remedial measures. It can do this by bringing together in a common forum the families of the elderly persons, members of medical profession, insurance firms, managements of hospitals and nursing homes, and those experienced in the running of social service organisations. An important intervention strategy is for everyone, particularly women, to start preparing for old age even when they are relatively young. It is essentially that each individual understands the legal, social and financial factors that shape their lives throughout their life span, and build the necessary support networks. This will go a long way in helping them take the necessary practical steps to secure their future and protect their rights, even as they advance in years.