Protecting India’s Elderly Parents
As India hits the high road to global integration and its leaders dream of the country as a potential economic/military super power, its traditional and deep-rooted social unit called the family seems to be undergoing extreme stress and a crisis.
This issue has now gained national importance with the Prime Minister of India, Mr Manmohan Singh, convening a Union Cabinet meeting and agreeing to introduce a bill in the Indian Parliament to make neglect of elderly parents (by their children) a serious offence.
Under the provisions of the Bill, a person who was responsible for the upkeep of parents failed to take care of them, can attract punitive measures like three months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000. Besides, it also provides for option to revoke the will, says DNA, a leading Indian newspaper.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill 2006 will be introduced in the budget session of Parliament commencing on Friday, Information and Broadcasting Minister PR Dasmunsi told reporters.
Under the provisions of the Bill anyone could suo motu complain to Tribunals seeking relief for the senior citizens.
India has many legends woven around the sacrifices made by their children for their elderly parents. The best known is the story of poor Shravan Kumar who carried his elderly parents on a pilgrimage in two baskets balanced on his shoulder with the help of a bamboo pole.
To read the story please click here.
In an earlier report IHT had this to say: “The difficulties faced by families split up by career moves to the West are confined to a small strata of educated, middle-class Indians. But the phenomenon of the isolated elderly parent is becoming common across all levels of modern Indian society, as extended family structures are eroded by job mobility and the rush from the countryside to the city.
” ‘India is becoming a tougher place to be old in, even for couples whose families remain in India,’ said Mathew Cherian, chief executive of HelpAge, an advocacy group for the elderly. ‘With increased labor mobility, even if they live in India, the children often live far away in another city.’ He added: ‘Since the liberalization of India’s economy in the 1990s, people’s priorities have changed. When you want more money, parents become secondary to the main pursuit of making more money’.”
“There has been a parallel decline in respect for the elderly,” said Gitanjali Prasad, author of the social history, The Great Indian Family.
