Changing expressions of filial piety and forms of intergenerational solidarity in neoliberal India
Posted on: 6 June 2024 by Dr Deblina Dey in Blog
There are mixed views about care homes for older people (commonly referred to as ‘old age homes’) in India. Several older people from urban middle-class households whom I have interviewed in Kolkata, an eastern metropolitan city of India, expressed a desire to not shift to a care home because they felt living amidst other older people would make them more depressed.
Are such care homes still anathema in the Indian context?
Older people in India conventionally have been looked after by their adult children. It’s considered a moral responsibility and duty of the children to repay the unconditional support from their parents while growing up by caring for ageing parents. The metaphor of ‘debt’ is often invoked in Indian languages to refer to the sacrifices made by parents towards their young children. It is a different matter that in contemporary times, cases of abuse, neglect, and misappropriation of property by adult children have been documented. Yet, filial piety continues to remain the predominant theme in law and policy. Indian films also portray the ideal son and daughter as the one who lives with their parents in late life and takes care of every need.
However, it’s important to not plot the landscape of eldercare in India on a binary scale: that, in the bygone era people in India lived in joint families, where older people were well looked after, and in contemporary times children have become selfish and refuse to shoulder responsibilities of their parents. Many older people do not want to be a ‘burden’ on their children for care. Some older women who lived alone emphasised the need for more care homes as they don’t feel safe relying on non-familial care. A widow I met during my fieldwork shared that she found her freedom after the demise of her spouse and eventual relocation to the home. At the home, she participates in different activities. NGOs (non-governmental organisations) provide recreation facilities for older residents in several care homes I visited. One of the common observations from many homes was that young schoolchildren often visited the homes to interact with them and many older people enjoyed those sessions. In the physical absence of kin, intergenerational solidarity is evolving in diverse ways in India.
Globalisation has brought with it more opportunities for work. Many adult children pursue their dream careers abroad and settle down there. Sometimes, older people encourage their children to live in faraway locations against the norm of co-residence. With the remittances sent by children, older people meet their medical needs or get repairs done at home. Yes, family structures have changed from joint, multigenerational families towards greater nuclearisation of families in India. Older forms of solidarity and support are constantly changing and newer ways of caring for older people are evolving in India. Intergenerational interactions often happen over distances. Here, the role of technology cannot be sidelined. Video calling with parents from a distance has become common in many urban middle-class households. Digital surveillance of older people’s and their caregiver’s activities in the former’s homes by their children are not unheard of.
Neoliberal reforms in India have propelled market intervention and one observes ingenious crafting of relationships between older people and third-party caregivers. Over the last five or six years, few metropolitan cities have seen rapid growth in market-based services during the current political regime that supports rampant privatisation. Loneliness is a major concern among many older people living in cities. Companion services are provided by care companies that employ care companions much younger than their older clients. For instance, the for-profit organisation Goodfellows supported by Ratan Tata (a leading industrialist in the country) are mostly in their early 20s. “We would do everything that your grandkid would do” is what’s mentioned on their website. It also resonates with the same message communicated to me by one of the founders of a leading care company in Kolkata. These are paid services which aim at building emotional connection with the older people, but it is critical to note that these services are accessible only to those who can afford them. Paid services in a society do not address the loneliness needs of those from a lower socio-economic background or those in rural areas.
The market re-invents itself to suit the changing needs of families with older people. A lavish real estate venture named Kutumb, the Sanskrit word for family, is an intergenerational community in Pune with a special focus on the care needs of older people. It is modelled on the concept of the Indian joint family but also provides a wide array of services (round-the-clock medical support, restaurants, activities for intergenerational interaction). In simple terms, people from different generations would co-exist and all kinds of facilities for each generation would be made available. Their market strategy is to also underscore the need for togetherness as they recognise loneliness to be very common among older people.
Most studies on intergenerational solidarity in India focus on the middle and upper classes. At a praxis level, the concept is quite relevant in Indian society, and it might be worthwhile to explore what intergenerational solidarity might mean for older people from different backgrounds (of caste, religion, gender) and along different axes (absence/presence of kin, and varied forms of deprivations and social exclusion). For instance, what is the nature of intergenerational solidarity among trans folks especially as many are shunned from their families and/or cannot legally get into marital unions? The trans community in India often is a multigenerational unit that can provide necessary support in the absence of conventional families. Similarly, for Dalits (oppressed castes) in India who’ve been excluded from the mainstream for centuries, could intergenerational solidarity be located only within their families and not outside? These are some provocations for further research on intergenerational solidarity in India.
About the author
Dr Deblina Dey is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat. She pursues interdisciplinary research on care, law, and inequality with a focus on older people in India. She is currently a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellow with the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, based in New York. She has been an alumna of academies and workshops organised by the Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP), Harvard Law School, Harvard University. Dr Dey has published on topics such as dispute resolution forums for older people, custodial neglect of older political prisoners, and religious norms related to end-of-life care. During her visiting fellowship at the School of Law and Social Justice, Dr Dey plans to work on her project on the eldercare market and philanthropic interventions in India, collaborating with colleagues from the Centre for Ageing and the Life Course.
She is enthusiastic about meeting scholars with similar research interests at the University.
Please feel free to reach out to Deblina at: ddey@jgu.edu.in / deblinad@gmail.com.
Access Deblina's previous works via: https://jgu.academia.edu/DeblinaDey?from_navbar=true