low graphics version | feedback | help
|
 Delhi correspondent Daniel Lak"The loss of tradition carries a heavy price"  real 28k  |
Lonely future for India's elderly
Traditional attitudes towards the elderly are changing |
By Daniel Lak in Delhi
It is lunch time at an home for the elderly in south Delhi.
About 30 people are eating rice, lentils and vegetable stew. All are in their late sixties or older and few seem particularly happy.
There are now more than 500 old people's homes in Delhi alone.
Savitri Saveen: Not happy in a home |
She was put into the home by her daughter.
"She had to go to the US, and she just put us here on the pretext that we would be here for only a couple of months," she explains.
 My daughter put us here because she had to go to the US  |
| Savitri Saveen |
In earlier days, people lived with their children when they were too old to work, but the urban middle class lifestyle that many people aspire to doesn't leave much room for aged parents these days.
But not everyone here is displeased about being in a home.
Escape
Sitting in the in sun on a pleasant day, a few people - mostly couples - say they prefer the peace and predictability of life in a home to their children¿s' houses.
Some elderly people prefer to be away from their children's homes |
"All priority is given to money," says Mr Narang.
"If relations demand that elderly people hand over all their money, then they suffer," he explains.
If the relatives get their money, they suffer. If they don't get their money, they also suffer |
| Sri Ram Narang |
There are exceptions.
In the kitchen of their home in Delhi, university professor Kum Kum Srivastava and her mother, Pushpa Manchandra are cooking lunch.
Joint family
Mrs Manchanda's husband died in 1977 and she moved in with her daughter's family not long after.
This is what is known in India as the joint family - three generations together under the same roof.
But things are changing, as Professor Srivastava points out.
"The joint family is breaking down, and it's the age of nuclear families with both the husband and wife working," she says.
Kum Kum Srivastava; "Society no longer parent-oriented" |
Hardly a day goes by in India without a horror story in the press about elderly parents - abandoned or abused.
In one notorious case in Bombay last year, an old couple leapt to their deaths from their 10th floor flat. They had been driven to suicide by their children, squabbling over ownership of the apartment.
India is getting younger, not older. But it has more 60m men and women older than 65, and the problems of the elderly are multiplying.
Activists working for the rights of the old say nothing short of a sea change in public attitudes will begin to make up for their suffering.
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
 | BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
|
| BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
Links to other South Asia stories are at the foot of the page.
E-mail this story to a friend
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~44~RS~)