Elder Abuse is not a crime committed by strangers. It is harm done to an older person by a relative, friend, or anyone the elder depends on for basic needs. The HOME is the main locale where elder spends his/her most of time and HOME icons a peaceful, caring and loving family. If the family is kept intact with care & blessings of elders, peace & love of young ones and fun & play of children, Elder Abuse can be eradicated totally from society.
In India, being primarily the follower of Hinduism, respect of the elderly because they are the parents of the present generation was a major concept in society. India was able to elude itself from the problem of elder abuse mainly because of it’s well defined and ethically regulated strong family system & value based marriage system but misconceived concept of women empowerment of Government of India has changed the things drastically in recent past and Elder Abuse has taken up upright rising trend.
Besides, other factors like poverty, urbanization, lifestyle changes, industrialization etc., the main factor contributing in this rise is the Government’s apathy towards this social problem. The Government instead of framing policies or legislations for protection of rights of elders in family has played a role of catalyst in promoting Elder Abuse by enacting and enforcing various gender biased matrimonial laws which are casting heavy toll on basic root of Indian society i.e. traditional Indian family system and is resulting in breaking of families. The breakup of family system and growing materialism have eroded the cultural values of the Indians. These matrimonial laws like IPC 498a, domestic violence Act,2005, CrPC125 etc. which favours (both in spirit & enforcement) and are enacted for only a particular gender/party i.e wife, has opened a vicious channel of Elder aAbuse at HOME as the vulnerable aged are the most likely to be abused.
In today’s India, where woman/girls are viewed equally in every aspect of life and are enjoying special equality with men besides the greed for easy money making, almost none of the newly wed wife wants to settle in a joint family or even with parents of her husband and feels restricted & watched of her independence so it can not be expected of her to carry the caring attitude for elders in family . The parents of bride being well aware of the upbringing of their daughter knows her incapability of discharging her matrimonial obligations also vitiates her mind and feedback her to abandon her in-laws and live independent life with full & sole right on her husband’s earnings. On an irrational & ironical justification or reasoning that “ even she has abandoned her parent’s house to marry him” , she insists on living separate so that nobody would even raise an eyebrow to her misdeeds and her incapability. In this process, the husband is made to realize that he is left with only two options with him either to “(i) abandon or neglect his parents and relatives” or to
Here comes the role of gender biased laws passed by our great visionary Government to empower the women…………………… wife, knowing fully that legal system & mechanism is in her favor and she can dictate her terms forcefully, she in order to fulfill this ulterior motive lashes physical, economical, verbal, mental, & pschycological abuse on husband & elder in-laws in their own home with the help & support from her paternal family and dreams about the day when her husband abandons his old age parents & succumb to her unscrupulous demands.
“(ii) face alongwith his old age parents, the ordeal of gender biased judicial system of India” on false & frivolous wild allegations and complaints from wife and her family. So husband gets into hot soup where Elder abuse is inevitable for him on any account(option-1 or 2).
In both the above situations, worst sufferers are the innocent in-laws “THE ELDERS” who in their old age either get abandoned or neglected by their son & DIL in their own home OR are dragged in courts on false charges by their Daughter-in-law where they are subjected to threatening, maltreatment and harassment by branding them as criminals. They are abused on account of their dignity, respect, health, finance & mental stability and are forced to live remaining days of their life in social stigma of criminal.
The possibility of easy misuse of these gender biased laws has lured the Daughter-in-law of today’s India so much that the Courts of India are piling up with the false matrimonial cases and the high rise in elderly abuse in the society is going on unnoticed.
Message on “ World Elder Abuse Awareness Day”, 15th June,2010.
A sincere appeal to Indian Government that if it cannot protect elders in country from abuse atleast It should not promote and propagate it with enacting & enforcing gender biased family breaking laws in India.
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