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Elderly women suffer most at the hands of their sons, daughter-in-laws: Helpage India survey
As per a Helpage survey report, women feel that workspaces weren’t friendly for the elderly, and they would rather prefer work from home unless they had more women of similar age around
Elderly women are ‘abused’ mostly by their sons followed by their spouses and daughters in law, according to a Helpage India survey on ageing women released on the eve of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on Wednesday.
Abuse includes rude behaviour, neglecting health concerns of elderly or not engaging with them adequately, Helpage officials said.
“As per survey report, as far as elderly women abuse is concerned, 49 per cent of the abusers happen to be their sons, followed by spouses and daughters in law. It is important to remind the younger generations that they too will grow old, and thus the culture of keeping senior citizens safe and provide for their adequate treatment needs to be encouraged,” said Ashok Kumar Singh, state head and director Helpage, a nonprofit organisation for the elderly.
The survey report titled ‘Women and Ageing: Invisible or Empowered’ was released at an event held at the Lucknow University (LU) with the hashtag ‘#MainBhiHoon’ and is based on data collected from 7911 respondents from across 20 states in the country.
The respondents, mostly below 80 years, including women from Gorakhpur and Bahraich in UP, were asked about how comfortable they felt as senior citizens in society, and whether they got the freedom, choices and treatment of their choice.
As per the report, 58 per cent women who were part of the survey in Gorakhpur and Bahraich felt that their workspaces weren’t elderly-friendly while 65 per cent felt they would prefer working from home unless they had more women of their age group around.
“They also felt that medical consultation fees for senior citizens should be reduced and rising medical expenses that increase with age, be subsidised. Women in Bahraich were less aware of the issues they faced than their counterparts in Gorakhpur,” said Singh.
Padma Shri awardee Vidya Bindu Singh, who was a special guest at the event said, “Loneliness is the greatest suffering and organisations and individuals should be conscious of this.”
“Nobody wants to leave their home or be away from their children when they grow old,” she said while narrating instances of elderly abuse or cases when the elderly got forced to stay in unsafe places by their children.
The report was released by divisional commissioner of Lucknow Roshan Jacob, in the presence of head of the LU’s Social Work department, Alok Rai, president of senior citizen general committee Shyampal Singh and others.
