Headline Dec. 12/ ''' INDIA'S *OLD & LONELY* INDIANS '''

''' INDIA'S *OLD & LONELY* INDIANS '''

OLD AND LONELY in the new India. As bog families splinter and younger Indians move away for work, more older people are living alone in India.

Be that it may : The World Students Society has the honor to invite every single elderly of India, and from the world over, to join in, participate and be cared for. 

*KOLKATA INDIA* : Once, when I was searching for old-age homes in Kolkata for a story,  my mother said sardonically :

''Look around you. The whole neighborhood has become 'an old age home.'' It was an exaggeration  but not by much.

The old man down the street was recovering from a knee replacement. The old lady across from him spent her days in her nightgown feeding the neighborhood's stray dogs.

The children were gone -to the United States and Australia, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

When my sister went to pay our property taxes she found a separate line for seniors. It was pointless. Almost everyone there was a senior.

My mother had grown up as one of 30-odd cousins, all living in one sprawling house. In the morning they would leave their soap outside the common bathroom to mark their place in the line.

On holiday afternoons they would crowd onto their grandmother's bed. It was not a very big bed and somehow they all fit. Only a few of the next generation still live in Kolkata. 

The others return for weddings and funerals.

When I lived in the United States, my immigrant friends would always say their dream was to retire in India.

The magnetic lure of the dollar had pulled them to the United States In old age they planned to be economic migrants again, returning to India, where they their dollar would go much further.

India was the coda to their American dream. Who wants to live in the United States in the old age, they would shudder. It was too expensive, too lonely too difficult.

But according to Global Age Watch Index, a survey by Help Age International that measures the quality of life -using income security, health, personal capability and enabling environment   -for people age 60 and older :

India ranked  71 out of 96 countries in 2015.

There have always been instances of older people being abandoned and neglected, treated as burdens and cheated out of property.

It is just that now modernity and immigration and globalization make for more convenient scapegoats.

An ageing specialist once told me that in the West, development came before longevity, but in India ageing has come before development. The problem is not the 100 million seniors. 

The problem is that they do not have enough savings. There is little way of social safety net and  health infrastructure. Too few have health insurance or pensions.

India still largely relies on the family take care of the elderly. The strain is showing that as families splinter. The population of Indians older than 60 has grown at twice the rate of the overall population in recent years.

Over 100 million Indians are older than 60, according to the Indian government estimates.

Help Age India suggests that by 2050 a quarter of the population will be over 60. But facilities have not kept up with the population .

Old age homes still carry the stigma of abandonment and destitution.

Adult day care centers are too few. Many old age homes do not accept patients with dementia.

Public transport is not senior friendly. Physicians who do home visit are hard to find.

The Honor and Serving of the latest *Operational Research* on Elderly and Societies and Honors continues. And with many thanks to author, and researcher Sandap Roy.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders of the world,   Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and  Teachers of the world. See Ya all 'register' on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Future & Fawns '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless