Parents in New India: Abused, Abandoned, Betrayed - New America Media:
His mother was sitting in the outpatient waiting area at the hospital for hours - did she not have a ride? No, her son and his wife were at work, and did not want to pick her up till they got done...
Shocking? Not really? In India? Possibly...but this was in the United States...
Is our instant-gratification society making us shy away from what is inevitable for all of us? As the article linked below comments, elder abuse is rampant - and we still bury our heads in the sand..."Countless adults are victims of abuse through self-neglect, and institutional abuse often receives the most media attention; however, by far the most common abusers of the elderly are family members, especially spouses and adult children. The low reporting rate of elder abuse therefore makes unfortunate sense: Victims would often prefer to endure the abuse rather than risk the loss of independence, being removed from their family, or possibly being forced to move into a nursing home.
Americans' inattention to this issue has many causes, and high among them is fear -- the fear of seeing ourselves in the victims, of facing our own inevitable future of vulnerability and death. With its focus on youth, consumption and productivity, and living for today, our culture is complicit in this turning away. The tragic result is our inability -- or unwillingness -- to imagine ourselves in the distant future, potentially alone and unprotected. So we don't see that helping protect the elderly today helps protect us tomorrow..."
We have talked about this issue in the Tribe Desi newsletter before - and we asked for suggestions, or how South Asian Americans across the country are coping with this issue - and didn't get very many responses, except a Indian retirement community in NJ...comment below if you know of any good initiatives...
"Not everyone is pushing their old mother down the stairs. But we brush older people aside in ways we don’t even realise. A survey from the Agewell Foundation in New Delhi found that 87 percent of elders in the 70-80 age group complain of isolation. And that happens even when they are living with family, at home. They just find themselves shunted off to the back bedroom.
In 2050 400 million people will be over 80 all over the world. 48.1 million of them will be in India. That doesn’t mean India will become a sea of grey. The median age of Indians will still be only 38. But 48.1 million people can’t be shoved into the back bedroom either."
His mother was sitting in the outpatient waiting area at the hospital for hours - did she not have a ride? No, her son and his wife were at work, and did not want to pick her up till they got done...
Shocking? Not really? In India? Possibly...but this was in the United States...
Is our instant-gratification society making us shy away from what is inevitable for all of us? As the article linked below comments, elder abuse is rampant - and we still bury our heads in the sand..."Countless adults are victims of abuse through self-neglect, and institutional abuse often receives the most media attention; however, by far the most common abusers of the elderly are family members, especially spouses and adult children. The low reporting rate of elder abuse therefore makes unfortunate sense: Victims would often prefer to endure the abuse rather than risk the loss of independence, being removed from their family, or possibly being forced to move into a nursing home.
Americans' inattention to this issue has many causes, and high among them is fear -- the fear of seeing ourselves in the victims, of facing our own inevitable future of vulnerability and death. With its focus on youth, consumption and productivity, and living for today, our culture is complicit in this turning away. The tragic result is our inability -- or unwillingness -- to imagine ourselves in the distant future, potentially alone and unprotected. So we don't see that helping protect the elderly today helps protect us tomorrow..."
We have talked about this issue in the Tribe Desi newsletter before - and we asked for suggestions, or how South Asian Americans across the country are coping with this issue - and didn't get very many responses, except a Indian retirement community in NJ...comment below if you know of any good initiatives...
"Not everyone is pushing their old mother down the stairs. But we brush older people aside in ways we don’t even realise. A survey from the Agewell Foundation in New Delhi found that 87 percent of elders in the 70-80 age group complain of isolation. And that happens even when they are living with family, at home. They just find themselves shunted off to the back bedroom.
In 2050 400 million people will be over 80 all over the world. 48.1 million of them will be in India. That doesn’t mean India will become a sea of grey. The median age of Indians will still be only 38. But 48.1 million people can’t be shoved into the back bedroom either."
