Old Age: More Wisdom and More Discounts
Growing up with grandparents is an amazing experience as it enriches one’s memory with lots of love, care and story time.
The forebearer are the safest hand in care giving of the children in the absence of parents who are bound by the obligation of running the household and move to the work place for the earning. In the presence of grandparents at the home, the children explore the world around them in a different way and develop themselves into a happy persona with the feeling of contentment.
These living ancestors play an important role in their grandchildren’s life by being their playmate, storyteller, trusted confidants and the ultimate protector.
They also act as guardian of culture, introducing the grandkids about different spectrum of manifestation of regional tradition while showing the path to the offspring to be traded on while continuing the journey of life.
The generous job these elderly people do for their families in return need little respect, love and care. Unfortunately, the current family values are growing in a selfish way discarding the contribution of the elderly people do in making the household bloom in prosperous way.
This bizarre happenings around the society caught my attention when I got the opportunity to read the “HelpAge India Report 2023”, highlighting the deplorable condition of elderly women in India after collecting data from 20 states, 2 Union territories and 5 metro cities. HelpAge India is an organisation working with and for the betterment of Indian elderly population.
Aging is a process of life and with the advancement of science & medicines, people are living more than their predecessors.
One interesting fact about aging is that it comes up with malfunctioning of different organs and senses of the body but understanding of the surrounding, wisdom and sagacity of the individual increases to multiple times. Elderly person’s concern for their children gets enlarged as his/her different body organs stop aligning together to protect his/her children from any kind of unfriendly environment to sustain life peacefully and happily.
Their perception and understanding of the world compel them to give advice on each and every affair involving their children’s household that other’s feel poking nose behaviour of the elderly people.
This particular behaviour brings annoyance and is the major reason behind abuse of elderly people at home.
The increasing dysfunctionality of the elderly individual’s body became another reason for their humiliation.
The care giver in the process of providing services take charge of their financial assets making the helpless elderly people, recipient of the mercy.
The condition of the elderly widowed women is all the more vulnerable due to patriarchal temperament that get added with increasing work load, lack of control over any financial resources and continuous abuse received from their off-springs.
It is heartening to see that the percentage of elderly population is growing in Indian society alongside the increasing the number of old age homes.
It is obviously a sign of worry for the future as it is reflecting the changing value system of the Indian society.
Family, as per Indian value system hold wholistic approach within itself consisting of elderly parents and children together. In this way the culture, ethics and morality get transcend from one generation to other while the younger generation receives ample amount of love, care and attention to develop in to a contended personality that contributes in the betterment of the society.
It also benefits the elderly people as they bestow love and affection on their off-springs, a sense of belongingness makes them happy from within.
This philosophy of family may create little bit of discomfort for the care giving generation in terms of increasing work load and restriction in freedom but it adds to the overall welfare that will surely contribute to the gross happiness index.
Probably this justifies the purpose of life; not just to live long but to create higher values for the younger generation.
Let’s build a positive eco-system, so that the elderly people live a dignified life with the support of family, state and non-state organisations as it may require.
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