“No doubt, these institutions provide free of cost shelter, clothing, food, and medical support for senior citizens but this whole infrastructure can never be the appropriate substitution for home”
By Haroon Rashid Bhat
Human society has witnessed many transformations in recent years that have/ had a deep impact on our social life. There are changes in every sphere of human life. Some yielded the best results and some showed the negative consequences. Earlier there was the much-acclaimed joint family system wherein elders lived with not only their children but also with their brothers, sisters, or uncles and aunts in nearby houses, mostly in villages or in small towns. This well-knitted family system enabled elders to lead reasonably happy lives with hardly any tension, as they had the confidence that someone would take care of them when needed. Whenever there were social, financial, or health-related issues for an elder, the whole family would run around to attend to all needs. With a perfect understanding of caring and sharing the duties, the elders did not feel let down or lonely. But the tendency of disintegration of families from joint to nuclear, unending greed, over-emphasis on materialism, excessive use of modern gadgets, and lack of moral values put an adverse impact on social life. This rapidly changing social scenario in terms of structure and values put the senior citizen in deep anxiety. They feel a sense of social, economic, or health insecurity. But, instead of providing the amenity to this class, the so-called modern man introduced a new model and developed the new institution under the different names- Old Age Home, Old Age Center, Retirement Home, and Old Age Care Home. These all sorts of acts reflect nothing but a selfish attitude and the creation of fiddly ways to escape from obligations. Firstly I object that this “Old Age Home” is not a suitable name given to this newly created institution. It can be named as “Old Age Center” not the “Home” because the word “Home” has a deep connotation- home means the emotional bonding of relations, mutual trust, love, respect, and responsibilities. “No doubt, these institutions provide free of cost shelter, clothing, food, and medical support for senior citizens but this whole infrastructure can never be the appropriate substitution for home” A decent society having strong moralities can never encourage this trend. The other side of the story is that there has been extreme exploitation of this class in the name of social service. Just as in the case of systems in other sectors, these centers have also become highly commercialized. There has been a virtual mushrooming of OACs in recent years. It has become a lucrative business, thanks to the NRIs who are prepared to shell out huge deposits to admit their helpless parents to OACs. The cost of providing accommodation, food, comfort, and medical help is high.
A cursory glance at the number of OACs in the country reveals that all elders residing in such centers are not taken care of well by the management. Some of them impose restrictions. The food served is reported to be of low quality and deficient in quantity in many of them. So also their bedrooms and toilets are often poorly maintained. Some of the managements do not utilize payments. The government of India has enacted the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 is a legislation enacted in 2007, initiated by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India., to provide more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens. This Act makes it a legal obligation for children and heirs to provide maintenance to senior citizens and parents, by monthly allowance. A senior citizen including a parent who is unable to maintain himself from his earnings or out of the property owned by him is entitled to get relief under this Act but we cannot put such prime relationships on conditions. We should accept the fact that we are at fault. We have deviated from our decent past. We should review our rich religious and cultural legacy where we had given esteemed positions to our elders. We used to seek guidelines from them in every matter. We considered any grand or small celebration incomplete without their moral and physical support. Also, our Youngsters need to spend some time daily learning the moral values of life, the practice of ethical living, and the value of parents and relatives along with their academic studies. In this regard, our educational and religious institutions can play a dynamic role to revive the cultural values in our social system. Let me conclude this write-up with a question mark. Will any one of us prefer to Old Age Home to be the Destination of Our Old Age?
Haroon Rashid Bhat is a teacher and a columnist , can be reached at minamharoon123@gmail.com.
