Old age shelters are a response to capitalist discourse that does not
consider the aged an integral part of the family, writes Onkar Singh.
Seek ye council of the aged for their eyes
have looked on the faces of the years and their ears
have hardened to the voices of life. Khalil Gibran.
Contemporary world seems unlikely to agree with Gibran. The rising popularity of nuclear families,, increasing population of the aged destitutes and proliferation of old age homes and their legitimization by the State and the society apparently point to a glaring disconnect between aged and the family. The aged have everything going against them – their children, the social environment they live in and above all their health. They are a victim of collective conspiracy. One reason seems that old age represents old thoughts that have little relevance to the swiftly changing society of today. Old does not seem to be goldanymore.
Redundant thoughts apart, old age comes with a plethora of physical and mental ailments. Aged people cannot look after themselves least others in the family. Instead they expect to be cared for as dependent on those they had cared for life. But, what a paradox! Whereas all children consider it their legitimate right to inherit property of their parents, looking after them in old age is an unpleasant task that most want to avoid. After all who wants a burden one is better off without?
Aged in the contemporary capitalist society are, in fact, losing relevance. They are a misfit in the new social and economic matrix that the global capitalism is redefining. The joint family system that provided them pivotal role in a household is one of the important pillars of pre capitalist social organization that capitalism has successfully broken. Its replacement by nuclear family has little use for the aged who can better be shifted elsewhere so that labour and consumer markets function more efficiently, hence old age shelters. That is what the old age homes indeed are. Ever thought of a home whose all members are past their sixties?
Separation of the aged from family signals a thought process which implicitly implies that the aged are not an integral part of the family. This frees the children from moral responsibilities of looking after the aged. At the same time it opens up parallel institutions that combine charity and business in running these shelters, thereby fulfilling at the same time welfare objectives of the State. Viewed thus, old age homes constitute an integral part of capitalist expansion in which the State plays ideological role in transformation of the society from pre capitalist to capitalist social order.
A recent study of Viridh Ashram ofKathua town while revealed on the one hand despondency that prevailed among its inmates, on the other it gave a glimpse of crumbling social order that binds family system. The Ashram that has been in existence for the past almost two decades had 27 inmates whose average age was 75 years, notwithstanding the fact that two of the inmates were above 90 years of age. All were obviously in their twilight years when the need for family members is felt the most. Yet these unfortunate souls were at the shelter running on charity. Where have the values disappeared from the present day generation? Significantly only seven of the inmates were women. It appears women are less likely to leave home than men even under worst of the situations.
The findings further revealed that¾th of the inmates were illiterate,indicating indirectly thatthey must have been labourer throughout their working life leading to greaterprobability of destitution.When asked about their occupation as many as 2/5th told they were labourer throughout their life. Two of the inmates were ex-servicemen and one was a retired school teacher. As many as 52% of the inmates were pensioners.So even education and bank balance are not sufficient to stop destitution in old age.
Another significant finding of the study was that the inmates came from all the major caste groups. Destitution among the aged therefore cuts across class and caste barriers. That was also the case with spatial dimension as well. Although, the Ashram was meant primarily for the aged destitutes of the town and its surrounding areas, yet as many as 52% of the inmates were from far off places including Basohli, Bani, Jammu, Udhampuras also from the districts of Gurdaspur and Amritsar of Punjab. Distance of the Ashram from these places varies between 90 and 140 kms!
Destitution also seems to have intensified in the recent past. While only two of the 27 inmates have been staying in the Ashram for the past 15 years, as many as 62% of them came to stay only during the past 5 years, an indication that destitution among the aged in the region has risen significantly during the past few years.
Our study also found that ¾th of the inmates came to the Ashram voluntarily whereas ¼th came involuntarily. Either way the inmates of the Ashram had to leave their homes due to conditions that were not conducive for them to live with their families;a sad commentary on the present day generation that wants their aged parents to disappear from the home they built and the family they nurtured . After all who leaves one’s home? Not the aged after all. This was confirmed by our further queries on family relations. More than 50% inmates did not have any visit from their family members for a long time. That was also the reason as to why only a little above 50% of the inmates stated that they had visits by the family members at regular intervals and as many as 45% refused to acknowledge having any family relations.
Being old is bad enough. But being old and destitute is worse. The pain of leaving home and family behind by the Ashram inmates has been as torture some as their sufferings from ailments like arthritis, heart diseases, cataract and depression that have crippled them for rest of life with little hope of recovery. They have reached dead end of life. Under such hopeless circumstances the Viridh Ashram has proved to be a boon for these homeless old men and women. But while old age homes do provide a much needed succor to the needy, the national discourse on old age welfare of which such shelters are an integral part, is an ideological stratagem to free young labour of any familial attachment that hinders their supply in the labour market
Old age homes are in fact antithesis of welfare measures that should essentially becentered around the aged insitu. On the contrary, these measures are directed towards fundamental alteration of the concept of family which is being restructured in response to restructuring of the global and local economies. Exclusion of the aged from the family and their junking in old age shelters is a response to such restructuring.
This insidious development on the social front has potentials of destabilizing the social order. It needs reversal which would not be possible without countering capitalism and its ideological ally, the State. This may seem difficult yet the goal is worth pursuing for bringing back the aged to their rightful place in the family.
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