Saba Noor
Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings and thus the end of human life cycle. Euphemism for old people include seniors, older citizens and elders (As per the National Policy on older persons, 1999).Today, these grey citizens are experiencing plethoric psychological or emotional distress including isolation, loss of independence, loneliness and losses of various kinds including bereavements. From the first breath of their child, parents make good on their silly demands and give everything they have. Thence, each following breath of the parents is invested for the weal of their children. Their hands steadied as we toddled, they bathed mud from our childhood antics, and then re-cleaned the tub for the ump-teenth time. Remember times when they held us after tumble and encouraged us to forge ahead. It was a chore then and it is still a chore, but, worth the effort and worth the love. Remember every time you are spending money, you are not exchanging commodities; but are spending time, energy and respect that your parents have earned by working hard. We ought to keep in mind the patience our parents exemplified in teaching us and we have to exercise same diligence with them. When roles are reversed, remember to love. Preserving the dignity of our seniors as they succumb to aging is the most important thing, we as children can offer our parents. This should be a reciprocal relationship as the child grows to adulthood.
Last century has witnessed a steady increase in the population of elderly people. This situation could be attributed to the combination of factors such as increase in age longevity, decreased death rate due to advancement in the field of medicine, enhancement in average life-span etc. A report by United Nations Population Fund found number of people over 60 years in India will increase from around 100 million today (approx…) to more than 324 million by 2050. It also provided that number of people over 80 years of age will be seven fold.India has second largest aged population of the world. 55 million elderly people sleep on an empty stomach every night. 12 million people in India are blind. 70-80% of these are elderly, 62.6% of them are blind due to cataract.Only 11% of India’s workforce participates in any sort of guaranteed retirement income. In India, the elderly population (aged 60 years or above) accounts for 7.5% of the population and as that of J&K state it is about 6.8%.The changing social milieu is siphoning the younger generation to search for new identities encompassing economic independence within as well as outside of the family. Traditional sense of duty and obligation of younger generation towards their older generation is being eroded. Older generation is caught between decline of traditional values on one hand and absence of adequate social security system on the other. Today society has lost its compassion and has become de-sensitized to the core values. The condition is inexplicable because those figures that are the lynchpin of the institution of the family are vilified and jettisoned in those years when they are in dire need of love, care and affection.
The modernization and rapid urbanization has led to subversion of our human values. The vicissitude has resulted into a condition where children try to find new ways to fend off parents from their lives. The problems of aged vary from society to society and have many dimensions in our country. Marginalization of geriatric population is occurring and they have to fend for themselves. Nowadays, the role of families in case of older persons is declining due to concomitant disintegration of joint family system which results in the rejection of the aged. It is not just an urban phenomenon because in rural India also, the family system is fretting as the materialistically motivated younger generation is increasingly heading towards cities; leaving their parents or grandparents behind. Moreover, most senior citizens are farmers and labourers who are not entitled to any pension. Consequently over the years, they become meek and dependent on their children. Verbal abuse, disrespect and neglect are the most common types of abuses experienced by the elderly. The ‘What ifs’ of life become vivid reality and ageing parent finds themselves torn between dependence and independence. The degeneration of our value system has heightened this problem. This problem needs to be dealt with at its root. A key strategy to facilitate the inclusion of older persons is to make our world more age friendly. It is to be remembered that sensitizing the issue and deliberate public action can dilute some of the adverse consequences of ageing. The old age dependency ratio is increasing over time at an alarming rate which is a matter of grave concern. Ratio of workers to pensioners (the support ratio) is declining due to two demographic factors; increase in life expectancy coupled with fixed retirement age and decrease in fertility rate. Increase in life expectancy increases number of retirees at any time.
A report by Helpage India, a voluntary organization working for needy elderly people revealed some shocking statistics. According to the report, “One in three senior citizens is a victim of abuse in India of which most common reasons are property related.” They may not see and hear well or think as clearly as they used to leaving opening for unscrupulous people to take advantage of them. Apart from this, a variety of problems plague pension system in India and a comprehensive policy for pension system restructuring is yet to be undertaken. Majority of workers, around 90% of working population are engaged in unorganized sector and have no access to any formal system of old age economic security. Formal sector workers receive pensions of around half of their last pay drawn. Using this as a yardstick, Government’s own indigent old people who gathered at Jantar Mantar in 2013 under the banner of Pension Parishad demanded a universal pension equivalent to half of the statutory minimum wages of unorganized workers which is roughly Rs 2000 a month. Some said, “If we get this pension, our children will take care of us.” While others said, “We will use this money for the treatment of our contagious diseases because of which we are kept out of our homes.” There is a startling absence of compassion. A dispassionate external observer would be bewildered by India’s capacity to look away when confronted with enormous injustice and disrespect of the society’s elders.
Our current existence is not formed in vacuum, separated from the world of our parents, their parents and so on. Rather we are all one continuous chain of existence. If we human beings with all our intellect reckon on our incognizance, we will realize that parents are the mainstay in our whole life. It can be easily subdued if we carry the cudgels in our hand and explore changing needs of our seniors in order to make the transition of their seasons smooth. Although Government is beavering a way to alleviate the problem but picture is far from rosy. The issue is being downplayed and it is high time to zero in on our disparaging attitude towards our senior citizens. An emotional and moral support system that comes from one’s own family has more curative and cathartic effect than all of the medicines put together. They can do without amenities of old age homes or geriatric hospital wards because that is not what they really want but it is smile, a kind polite word and attention is what they crave for during the twilight of their lives.
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