INa bid to look after the welfare of the state's senior citizens, the Maharashtra government has mooted a bill that seeks to compel children to provide for their elderly parents. The government hopes to push through the draft—it is being given final touches—when the legislature convenes next for the monsoon session. "Parents work hard to feed and educate their children. What happens when they grow old—shouldn't children return such care? We want to fix this responsibility," says state Social Welfare Minister Babanrao Gholap.
Advocating the need for such a bill, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi says "responsibility doesn't just flow from parent to child; it should be returned by the child to the parent." Joshi's idea perhaps comes from the Shiv Sena style of functioning which is a melange of muscle and social work. The emphasis may be on the former, but the party's intemperate chief Bal Thac-keray also built the Sena around social services that started at the street level. Thackeray's contribution to the Sena social service agenda includes a home for the aged at Khopoli on the out -skirts of Mumbai.
Whatever Joshi's reasons, the elderly obviously need a lot of help from all quarters possible to see through their twilight years. Take these instances. Savitribai Jadhav put in years of hard work as a masseuse to set aside the money for a tenement in suburban Mumbai. Within months of buying the place, however, a couple of toughs knocked on the door and asked her to move out. Her younger son wanted the house. Frequent and menacing visits from her son's emissaries left Savitribai with just one option: she filed a police complaint. Her case is in court now and a bitter mother awaits justice. "I am a poor woman who has worked hard to buy this house. It hurts more as the person trying to evict me is my own flesh and blood.
" Savitribai's experience is not restricted to the chawls and shanties of Mumbai. Poor or rich, many old people find they have no place at home. Hari Ramani, 68, had all the perquisites that a senior position in government could offer. But he forgot a few sterling rules like buying an apartment of his own and adopting a more docile post-retirement demeanour. The results have been loneliness, a stretched wallet and the bitter knowledge that his ex-wife often vacations in Europe. His five children prefer their rich mother and her new husband. Trying to live with each of his children proved a bitter experience for the father who now prefers to stay as a paying guest. Ramani's pension just about takes care of the monthly rent and medicine for his acute diabetes. "I wouldn't mind if he stayed with me though he has become a painful old man. The others won't have him and in any case Daddy won't live with one of us. He prefers his landlord and treats him like a son," says Ramani's youngest daughter Anita. She admits that her father may have been on the streets had it not been for his pension.
Despite the state of her own family ties, Anita Ramani is among those who feel that the state government may be right in proposing a bill that compels children to provide for their elderly parents. She feels society is "reaching a point where such a bill may be necessary, to ensure that parents receive care in their old age, something that Indian culture has through the ages taught children to give".
The chief minister first announced the concept of legislating the maintenance of aged parents in December, during the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur. Currently, though the bill is being talked of, it will do a few rounds between the ministries of social welfare and law before the final draft is readied to be presented at the next session.
Himachal Pradesh is the only state to make it mandatory for children to look after ageing parents. In Maharashtra's draft bill, "legal remedies necessary to remind heads of households of their responsibility to the aged" include setting up tribunals in every district. The tribunal will be empowered to order the respondent to provide maintenance. To ensure fair end-use of money, the bill proposes that the maintenance received cannot be transferred to any other person as a loan or gift. A neglected parent, or third party on behalf of the parent, can appeal to the tribunal for justice. The third party could be a family member, friend, landlord, or anyone authorised by the needy person. This provision is proposed in case the person is incapable of approaching the tribunal on account of a physical or mental inability.
A study by the Indian Council for Medical Research on the disabilities of the geriatric population found that 88 per cent have visual problems, 40 per cent suffer locomotor difficulties, 18.7 per cent have neurological problems and 8.1 per cent have psychiatric difficulties. Another ICMR study which examined a sample of 150 geriatric patients found that 20.7 per cent suffered from dementia and another 16 per cent were manic depressives. Physical and mental disabilities of the geriatric often create problems at home, and sometimes even drive them out of it. "Personality changes in old age are unacceptable for this generation," explains psychiatrist A.K. Srivastava, adding that the new generation often discards the elderly due to physical compulsions like the pressures of work rather than emotional reasons. He, however, feels that the state government's proposed bill is not the answer, but an excuse for its own lack of solutions. "The government is discarding its responsibilities, and passing the buck. How many institutions does it run for the aged?"
Many share the view that the government is trying to cover its failures with legislation—a lack of state-run old age homes and an absolutely meagre social security pension of Rs 75 per month for the destitute above 65 years of age. "How many old age homes does the state run? Most of them are privately managed without any financial help from the government. Instead of doing something in this area, the government is trying to legislate Indian culture," says Michael Ferreira, former world billiards champion. Ferriera, who is a lawyer, was the coordinator of a medico-legal seminar held here recently. The seminar focused on the problems of dementia. Attention was given to the difficulties brought on by age coupled with mental problems. Guidelines that are being drawn up after the seminar—they will go to the law commission, Union Ministry of Social Welfare et al—take into account grey areas that need medical and legal redressal, including problems of the elderly suffering mental disorders.
Despite disabilities, elders often contribute to running the house. But increasingly, in an age of shrinking space and nuclear families, they are finding themselves redundant, when their use runs out. A handicap, for instance, did not stop William Pinto from being the pivot of his sister's family—helping nephews and nieces, running for household chores. The day the family realised that Pinto, who is both deaf and dumb, was getting too old to look after the house, he was shifted to a suburban Mumbai home for the aged. Pinto, now in his early seventies, awaits rare visits from his sister's family.
Pinto may be luckier than others. Eminent neurologist ChicotVas cites examples of three semi-demented persons who have been evicted from their own home. "At this very moment, one of them, a lady, is wandering around Bandra (a Mumbai suburb) with her possessions on her head. It is a poor reflection on our society." Vas feels that existing legislation—for instance, sections 53 and 54 of the Mental Health Act of 1987, which cover guardianship of the person and estate—has not been properly understood or used. He feels that rather than a new legislation, the best solution is for the state and society to do their bit. The state could provide well-run homes; and society must "fulfil an obligation that is part of Indian tradition for the last 5,000 years; the obligation of looking after the aged."
(A few names have been changed to protect their identity)
