In traditional Chinese and other Asian cultures the aged
were highly respected and cared for. The Igabo tribesmen of Eastern Nigeria
value dependency in their aged and involve them in care of children and the
administration of tribal affairs. The
hallmark of Indian culture is our respectful attitude towards our elders, and
the practice of more than one generation living together. Our parents are the
ones who have brought us up and made us what we are. At least out of
consideration for that much, we should be good and kind towards them. But Younger generations no longer assign
status to the aged and their abandonment is always in danger of becoming the
social norm. There has been a tendency to subject the aged to domestic
violence, subject them to cruelity , to remove the aged from their homes and
put them in custodial care.
A man's life is normally divided into
five main stages namely infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.
In each of these stages an individual has to find himself in different
situations and face different problems. The old age is not without problems. In
old age physical strength deteriorates, mental stability diminishes; money
power becomes bleak coupled with negligence from the younger generation. After
a certain age health problems begin to crop up leading to losing control over
one's body, even not recognizing own family owing to Alzheimer are common in
old age. It is then children began to see their parents as burden. It is these
parents who at times wander out of their homes or are thrown out, penniless and homeless
to depend on charity. Some
dump their old parents or grand parents in old-age homes and don't even come to
visit them anymore. The
state of the widows of Vrindavan – with nowhere to go and their own family
having cast them out, is an example of the outcome; they earn a meager living
by devotional singing or, if they cannot sing, by begging. In many cases they
are thrown out by their families after their property has been taken over, or
they are rejected for not having any property or other assets that the family
can use. In many cases, it has been seen
that parents abandoned by their children at railway stations and
out-patient departments of hospitals. In many cases even when the parents die,
the children say they cannot perform the last rites, and he himself has
performed the last rites for many old people. In rare cases, we find the
tradition of thalaikoothal, in Tamil
Nadu which involves giving the old
person an oil bath early in the morning and making them drink a lot of tender coconut
water, which results in renal failure, high fever and death in a day or two. According to NGOs incidences of
elderly couples being forced to sell their houses are very high. Some elderly
people have also complained that in case of a property dispute they feel more
helpless when their wives side with their children. Many of them suffer in
silence as they fear humiliation or are too scared to speak up. According to
them a phenomenon called 'grand dumping' is becoming common in urban areas
these days as children are being increasingly intolerant of their parents' health
problems.
The old
persons have many problems Physiological, and those relating to Safety,
Belonging, love, identification; Esteem:
Achievement, prestige, success, self respect; and Self actualisation:
Expressing one's interests and talents to the full. Social aging follows a well
defined pattern of Disengagements-
1.
Change in role. Change in occupation and productivity. Possibly change in
attitude to work.
2. Loss
of role, e.g. retirement or death of a husband.
3.
Reduced social interaction. With loss of role social interactions are
diminished, eccentric adjustment can further reduce social interaction, damage
to self concept, depression.
4.
Awareness of scarcity of remaining time. This produces further curtailment of
activity in interest of saving time
The twenty-first century
is often called the age of ageing. Since 1950, the proportion of the world.s
population aged 60 and
over has changed from one in thirteen to one in ten, with some
developingcountries ageing faster than developed countries. These demographic
trends which every country is undergoing are having significant social,
economic and political effects on society and on its institutions such as the
family, the labour force, social and health services, etc. The impact of the
world.s ageing population growth on the socio-economic policies and the culture
of societies is already presenting difficulties to governments. Moreover, as a
result of the radical social and cultural changes that are taking place
throughout the world in recent years, such as industrialisation, urbanisation
and modernisation, the stability of society has been shaken in many countries
and the scale of values altered. Furthermore, traditional approaches which used
to meet the needs of the older citizens are undergoing change. Population
ageing poses unique challenges to every society. Unlike other population
variables, such as fertility and mortality, which to a considerable extent can
be influenced by government policies and interventions, the process of
population ageing is neither amenable to change nor easily modified.
Consequently, the attention of every government is to be aimed not on whether
it can change the basic process of population ageing, but rather to the very
issues that arise from this process. A very important consequence of population ageing is the
ethical issues which arise from such a phenomenon. A lot has been said and
written on the rights of older persons. The Indian Laws provide following
Rights
of the ElderlyPersons-
·
Parents
cannot be evicted from a house without due process of law if they have been
staying there from before.There is three enactments that can be applied.
·
Under
section 125 of the CrPC,a magistrate can order a child to maintain his old
parents under the Maintenance of Parents Act.
·
The
Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act say an aged parent can demand maintenance
from children in the same way that a wife can demand it from her husband.
·
The
Domestic Violence Act too provides parents with the right to seek relief from
any kind of abuse.
The
aged share with the young the same needs: However, the aged often have fewer or
weaker resources to meet those needs. Their disengagement is not an inevitable
process. The needs of the old are essentially the same as in middle age and the
activities of middle age should be extended as long as possible. The decrease
in social interaction of the aged is often largely the result of society
withdrawing from the individual as much as the reverse. To combat this the individual must vigorously resist the limitations
of his social world.Their need for social interaction may be ignored by family
and care workers. Family should make time to visit their aged members and
invite them to their homes. The aged like to visit children and relate to them
through games and stories. Meaningful relationships can be developed via
foster-grandparent programs. Some aged are not aware of their income and health
entitlements. Family and friends should take the time to explain these. Some
aged are too proud to access their entitlements and this problem should be
addressed in a kindly way where it occurs. It is best that the aged be allowed
as much choice as possible in matters related to living arrangements, social
life and lifestyle. Communities serving the aged need to provide for the aged
via such things as lower curbing, and ramps.
Carers
need to examine their own attitude to aging and dying. Denial in the carer is
detected by the aged person and it can inhibit the aged person from expressing
negative feelings - fear, anger. If the person can express these feelings to
someone then that person is less likely to die with a sense of isolation and
bitterness.
In India, a
National Policy on older persons was announced in January 1999 which identified
a number of areas of intervention-financial security, healthcare and nutrition,
shelter, education, welfare, protection of life and property for the wellbeing
of older persons in the country.A National Council for Older Persons (NCOP) was
constituted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to operationalize
the National Policy on older persons.
To Conclude, Respect for older persons
has always been thought to be a common heritage of mankind. However, the
grounds and forms of such respect tend to change according to place and time.
Until recently, older persons were considered as the richest storehouses of
knowledge. Rapid changes in technology and the spread of schooling have
produced as one result, the deposition of older persons from their status as
the repositories of total wisdom. Ethics requires that human relations, even
between generations, go beyond strict justice, in the sense of giving everyone
his due, and express their awareness of
the unity of mankind in concrete ways. Older persons should not only mete out
to themselves or receive from family, society and international humanitarian
institutions, just the means of subsistence, but also be enabled to exercise
generosity and show magnanimity. Older persons are morally obliged to keep
making the most productive use of their talents not only out of self-interest
but also as their personal contribution to the common good of mankind. To do
so, they must be given the necessary space at family, social and international
levels. On the one hand, older persons should assume responsibility for their
own future not only for their own sakes, but also as an act of solidarity with
the whole human community. Correlatively, for such an exercise to be possible,
the intelligent collaboration of the State and of Civil Society with older persons
themselves is necessary. These particular obligations both of and towards older
persons stem from the fact that all human beings share responsibility for the
well-being of all other human beings wherever they may be, both now and in the
future.
Pragyan Pandey,
MSME,
2nd Year
