Abuse Against Elderly in India

With the increase in the life expectancy, India is experiencing a considerable rise in the proportion of elderly population. Earlier Old age was never been considered as a problem in India. Caring and respecting the elderly are instilled in the Indian culture but now due to changes in the life styles and social values, attitude towards care giving responsibility also changing. As a result there is a growing crime against elderly in India. According to the surveys conducted by Helpage India ( 2014), 50 percent of the elderly are experiencing abuse; Abuse can be verbal, physical and emotional, in the form of isolating and talking rudely to them, physical harassment, denial of basic needs, mental torture, neglect, disrespect and abandonment, ill treatment and restricting their social contacts. This issue of violation of human right has to be look and understand by the elderly, service provider’s and care giver’s perspective.

The main objectives of the study are: to know the causes and consequences for the abuse, to examine perception and the level of awareness about the rights of elderly and to suggest the strategies to prevent violence against elderly. The study is conducted in Belgaum (Belagavi) city of Karnataka state, India. The empirical data were collected by 200 respondents through interview. A simple descriptive statistical method is applied to analyze the data. The study concludes that majority of the elders irrespective of their financial and social status is abused by their family members. Older women were more affected and prone to suffer from abuse due to gender discrimination, poor financial condition, longer life span of widowhood and social norms. The study emphasises the need to create awareness about the rights of elderly and to ensure implementation of policies pertaining the protection of old persons.