The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared the Parents and Senior Citizens (Welfare and Maintenance) Bill. Touted by the UPA Government as a radical step to help the elderly, this Bill tries to protect the financial and mental health of senior citizens.
The Bill lays down that children who neglect their parents could be sent to jail for three months or be liable to pay a fine of Rs 5,000. It also gives powers to parents to disinherit children from their property.
The question that was discussed on CNN-IBN's show India 360, being conducted by Sagarika Ghose, was: Are Indians becoming less and less caring about the elderly?
On the panel of experts to discuss the issue were CEO, Help Age India, Mathew Cherian; GMAT aspirant, Siddharth Singh and senior citizens, Mr and Mrs Jagjit Singh.
As per provisions of the new legislation, the Government agencies will pitch in with legal counsel to ensure that the senior citizens are cared for by their children. These counsel will also ensure financial, emotional and social security for the uncared for senior citizens.
Pension reforms are the real solution
"This Bill is welcome to a certain extent. We have seen in Help Age India that many parents throw out their parents and send them to old-age homes, making their lives very lonely. In Delhi alone, there are hundreds of thousand of parents are alone because their children are either abroad or in other parts of the country," CEO Help Age India, Mathew Cherian, said.
Cherian pointed out that section 124 of the Criminal Procedure Code already allows for penal provisions, and what India really needs are pension reforms. "Ninety per cent of the elderly do not have pension. There is a national old age pension — which is only Rs 200 — but it is only for destitute elderly. So, if you are poor and not destitute, then you are not entitled to the pension," he added.
While making an important point — for the elderly people to have a secure and dignified life, we need pension reforms — Cherian added, "Ninety per cent of the people in India are in the unorganised sector and although an Unorgnised Sector Workers Bill exists, it has still not come to light. These are necessary for the old aged to live a life of security."
Siddharth Singh, a GMAT aspirant who has lived in the US for four years, said that if it were required of him to live with his parents in India at the cost of giving up a job abroad, then he would not hesitate. "I don't think that a lot of people would do that but then, it is a mixed bag. But there would probably be more who would choose to take their careers rather than take care of their parents," he added.
When gender affects filial relationships
The bitter truth about many of the families in India is that the parents are unwilling to stay or accept financial assistance from their daughters. Addressing the issue, Cherian said, "That is a gender bias in society which has to be overcome. It is so good for the grand children that the grandparents live in the house and look after them. That is the inter-generational bonding."
Photo Courtesy: The Grandmother Project
When Mrs Jagjit Singh were asked if they felt abandoned by their daughters — who lived in Delhi — and felt dumped in an old age home, she said, "No, never. We came here out of choice and we are very happy. We are looked after so well that we don't miss our home." While terming the parents maintenance Bill as a "good bill", Mrs Singh added, "Some parents do suffer and I think it will help them if the Government takes their side."
When Cherian asked Mrs Singh if she would prefer to stay with her grandchildren or in Godhuli, she said, "It's wonderful to stay separately because there is too much of a generation gap and the grandchildren should be able to stay the way they like.
Mrs Singh said that she preferred staying in an old age home as compared to their own home as it was safe there. "Here we have security and nothing to worry about. Every thing is given to us on a silver platter."
Can law bring a change of heart?
If there is no intent on the part of the children to look after their parents, then may be termed as abusive. If the children see parents only as economic providers and once they have ceased to give money, they are no longer treat them as useful, they can be deemed to have violated the Bill. But then, how can the law change an abusive child to a loving child?
"I don't think that the law can change a child. The only thing that the law can do is to return the property back to the parents or give a maintenance of up to a maximum of Rs 5,000," Cherian said. He added that there was another provision that says if the child can't do either of the two, then the parents can be put in an old age home.
"But my contention is that there are not enough old age homes in the country and there is no budgetary provision in the Bill for providing old age homes in every district in this country," Cherian said.
Today, 76 million Indians are above the age of 60 and the number is expected to rise to 112 million by 2016. In fact, the number of Indian elderly a decade from now will be more than the population of Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt or Turkey and a six times more than Australia and two-fifths of the US.
How was one to decide what can be a possible solution to the problem? Was it sending money to the parents or was it making a space in one's life for the parents? "I think it is all about making space in your life. My parents have always loved me and I can only reciprocate that.
But then, when the relationship between parents and children breaks down, when love is replaced by abuse, a law is perhaps only of limited value.
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