Trajectories of at-Home Geriatric Caregiving

In India the problem of Population Ageing is seriously understated. The sporadic and scattered mention of it in Sociological discourse is far from noting the reality of the gravity of the phenomenon. ‘Care’ is a subjective, abstract configuration. Even after filtering out the emotionality and utopian element of care; the ground reality of it is multidimensional with differing empirical configurations in varying circumstances. Care giving is an acquired skill and not merely an ascribed intention. However in Indian society such a consideration is remarkably absent. The institution of Family is assumed as having an inbuilt, organic capacity to care for elderly; without factoring in the rapid changes in the structure and functions of the institution of family. This kind of assumption compels women, who conventionally are placed in the position of care givers to take up the responsibility of looking after the elderly in the family.

This paper is an attempt to review the fractured potential of family as a care giving agency at the cost of the emotional, physiological and financial burn out of the middle age generation women as care givers.
The paper focuses on sixty households as units of study. Thirty in Mumbai (Maharashtra) and thirty in Kottayam (Kerala). Every unit is studied as a design of three generations – maternal / paternal grand parents, married middle age parents and young growing up children. The research paradigm is qualitative; the technique of unstructured interview is utilized. The women care givers of the middle stratum of the design are interviewed to understand the perceptions, satisfaction, problems and discontent of being part of this process. Researchers hope to arrive at a comparative understanding of the at- home care giving in the two cities which represent two significant states in India.