WUNRN
WOMEN'S FEATURE SERVICE
India - New Delhi
INDIA - Aging of Women
India:
When I'm Sixty-Four
By Swapna Majumdar
New Delhi (Women's Feature Service) - There are brown
ones, black ones, and even grey ones. Teddy bears of
all sizes and colours tucked in her bed, beside her
pillow. "Have you met my babies? They are all sleeping
right now. Don't they look sweet?" asks Rita Sikand,
86.
Sadly for Sikand, these teddy bears are all she has
now. Thrown out of her house by her daughter, she has
been staying at a private old age home in Delhi for
the past five years. Here, her basic needs of food and
shelter are looked after and she is able to live a
life of dignity. However, the home is unable to fulfil
her longing for the love of her family.
With the breakdown of joint families, it is not just
values that have changed but also traditions. "It was
taken for granted that you would grow old with your
children around you. But now, there is no guarantee of
that," says Matthew Cherian, chief executive of
HelpAge India, an NGO working for the elderly.
The worst affected by this phenomenon are women, who
will soon constitute 51 per cent of the population of
older persons, thanks to an increase in their life
expectancy. According to the 2001 census, the life
expectancy of females is 68.1 against 65.8 of males
for the period 2006-2010. This will rise to 72.3 for
female against 69.02 for males during the period
2011-2016.
This demographic fact is no secret. In fact, the
government acknowledged the need for steps to be taken
to address the needs of women in its Bill on Older
Persons. This Bill, which was passed by Parliament
last year, stresses that sensitive initiatives for
women within the elderly population needed to be taken
to prevent them from becoming 'victims of triple
neglect and discrimination on account of gender,
widowhood and age'.
Yet, no special strategies have been formulated. There
is only one home specifically for destitute women, run
by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation. According to
officials of the Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment, the nodal department, the ministry does
not want to discriminate between men and women
although it accepts that the older women will
outnumber older men. So its initiatives are aimed at
the elderly in general.
"There is an alienation of old people especially in
the urban areas. The worrying part is that eight per
cent of the grey population comprises single women.
They face not just physical insecurity but financial
and emotional insecurity as well. Who is going to look
after them?" asks C.P. Thakur, economist and founder,
Institute for Human Development.
Are old age homes the answer to the problems faced by
the increasing number of single, elderly women? Yes,
says artist Surjit Kaur, 74, who lives in Har-Mit
Trust and Home for Senior Citizens located in the posh
south Delhi colony of Greater Kailash. "Old age homes
are wonderful because as a single woman it gives me
independence and security. I don't have to be
dependent on anyone and neither do I have to worry
about being murdered in my sleep," says Kaur.
The desire to be able to live as they wanted was also
one of the reasons that prompted Colonel Jagjit Singh,
89 and wife Guna, 87, to live in Godhuli, an old age
home in Dwarka in Delhi. "These homes are very
necessary because it gives old parents their freedom.
It hurts when the children don't listen to you or
don't have time for you. My daughters are very loving
and caring. But they do have their own lives. This way
all of us are happy," Guna discloses.
Unfortunately, according to a recent study by HelpAge
India, an overwhelming majority of the elderly
residing in old age homes was compelled to live there
because of familial problems.
The findings of its survey of 30 old age homes in
Delhi and the National Capital Region conducted last
year revealed that family problems had prompted 70 per
cent of old age home residents to seek the refuge of
such homes. Ten per cent of the residents opted for
these homes because their children lived abroad, 10
per cent did so because they had only daughters (and
could not live with them) and another 10 per cent had
never married and, therefore, had no children to live
with.
However, many of them are wary of revealing they live
in old age homes. "There is a stigma attached to such
homes even though now many of them are called senior
citizen's homes. This is because it is presumed if you
live in them you do so because either you have been
thrown out, left out, or are in distress," claims
Thakur. This is why when his wife, Sushila, decided to
shift to an old age home, she kept it a secret. In
fact, both her husband, who is a former member of the
Rajya Sabha and her son, who lives abroad, opposed her
decision to shift to Godhuli. But they were unable to
dissuade Sushila, who wanted time alone to try to cope
with the tragedy of her elder son's untimely death.
It was to give the older people a home away from home
that Har-Mit was founded, says Avtar Pennathur, a
psychologist, who donated her home for the purpose.
Expressing similar sentiments is Krishna Satyanand of
Servants of the People Society, the NGO that runs
Godhuli. Both these homes are pay-and-stay homes. The
average cost of living at private homes like these
ranges between Rs 6,300 (meals exclusive) to Rs 15,000
(meals inclusive) (US$1=Rs 39.3) per month for single
occupants. The rental cost for a couple is higher.
Yet, these homes have a long waiting list.
It is not just private homes that have people queuing
up, government-run old age homes, which are far more
modest, are also filled to the capacity. Furthermore,
NGOs like HelpAge receive over 300 complaints a month
from elderly parents of ill-treatment by their
children. Clearly old age homes have become a
necessity.
The government has already legislated the setting up
of an old age home in every district in its Bill. But
it has not clarified whether some of these homes are
to be exclusively for elderly women. However, the mere
setting up of homes cannot ensure a life of dignity
for them. For these homes to become more than mere
shelters, there needs to be a change in the societal
mindset that considers the old, particularly women,
unwanted and a burden.
(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)
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