Living Arrangements of the old in Context of Modernization- a Study of the Elderly Women in Kerala

Abstract: By 2021 the growth rate of elderly persons in Kerala will be one and a half times higher than the growth rate of general population. Most of the states in India including Kerala have not decided on Old Age Policy though the Government of India has formed a National Policy on Older Persons in 1999. The growing elderly population is a threat to the socio economic conditions of the State. One consolation is that the elderly themselves are doing a purposeful socialization for themselves. Now the trend is that the elderly do a lot of mental exercises on various patterns of living arrangements and then choose best according to the socio economic conditions.

Keywords: growing elderly population, women of Kerala, income groups, old age care, social security, Indian policies for elderly

According to preliminary information of the census data 2001, the rate of growth of population is one of the lowest in Kerala (0.6%), unlike the elderly population which is increasing at a rapid rate. The state of Kerala lies in the southern tip of the Indian peninsula with all the features of the Indian subcontinent with little variations. The proportion of elderly persons in India has risen from 5.63% in 1961 to 6.58 in 1991 and is expected to be 7.08 in 2001 and 9.87 in 2021. As of 1991 the highest proportion of the elderly among the states and union territories was found in Kerala with 8.77%. By 2021 the growth rate of elderly persons in Kerala will be one and a half times higher than the growth rate of general population. The pressure on the state is very high due to this dent category of population as the state is over- burdened by looking after them. Most of the states in India including Kerala have not decided on Old Age policy though the Government of India had formed a national policy on older persons in the year 1999. The states are silent about this policy though the Constitution of India through Article 41 and through the Fundamental Rights made the social security of older persons the concurrent responsibility of the Central and State Governments. The growing elderly population is a threat to the socio economic conditions of the state. Kerala is a state with a high quality of life (Amarthya Sen) and long lifespan both for men and women (68 years for men and 73 years for women) and the consequent problems of elderly people are also more in Kerala.

The cultural flame of Kerala gives a higher status to women, which always gave confidence and status for the women (Government of India, Towards equality 1975). Added to this, high rate of literacy (90.85%) and the employment opportunities which give the women of Kerala an edge over the women of other states in terms of power and thereby a special status, is referred to as empowerment. The elderly women of Kerala wielded power due to the matriarchal system followed by a dominant section of the population. Historically the women of Kerala had many opportunities to strengthen their status Polyandry, ownership of property– matrilineal and matrilocal – and this tendency continues. Today the elderly women of Kerala have a paradoxical situation to face, due to the changing society and life style.

D’Souza(1989) observes that change in living arrangements, family structure and mode of sudden retirement adversely affect the old, and further, the old people are in increasing proportions losing the status and security which they enjoyed in the traditional Indian family structure. With regard to the transformation in Indian family system, Dreze (1990) views a considerable overlap between the problems of widows and old age in rural India i.e., for an economically independent couple the decision regarding co-residence with the children (sons in particular) is based on the situations and preferences of the older as well as the younger generations. Another study by Kaur et al (1987) also emphasized the fact that the present generation treated the old people as a burden and their presence in the family irks most of the family members. The status of the aged in the changing social structure has been investigated by social scientists from different perspectives. In most of the families of Kerala the young and the old relationship has taken a new turn in the context of increased migration of people from Kerala to other parts of the country, and outside India, women going for work and a new outlook towards life (Nayar, 1987). Such investigations have more or less concluded on the breaking down of kinship and family organizations which has put the elderly in a state of helplessness, isolation and economic dependence (Sharma and Dak, 1987).

Social change and its consequences namely modernization or globalization is increasingly seen in the life styles of people directly and indirectly. Direct changes can be seen in the material aspects and the indirect changes can be seen in the behaviour patterns and attitude formations. One of the consequences of globalization is the increasing individuality and the freedom people gain to choose their life. Habermas has rightly pointed out that today the A Study of the Elderly Women in Kerala culture is not ascribed as the people have an opportunity to choose one’s own culture unlike the past. The post modern society where we are living is so competitive and complex that people are crazy to choose the culture under the influence of other societies or social institutions. The old are also not far away from this as the State and other agencies discuss their issues in public. Mass media too helps the old people by making them aware about their issues and to choose a life of their interest. This is the impact of globalization. All over the world, society is experimenting with the old and vice versa and these exercises are widely publicized so that the patterns of the life of the old in the developed counties are spreading to developing and underdeveloped counties. Institutionalized living is a classical example in this context. As pointed, out ‘in various subaltern studies on the methodology to study the weaker. Thus there is a close relationship between elderly, modernization and their life patterns which is the theme of this paper.

The main objective of this paper is to find out a pattern of living arrangements of the elderly women in the context of modernization. The second objective is to study the living arrangements of both institutionalized and others who are living in families and to find out the comparison in the anticipatory socialization of these sections. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis are simultaneously used to find out the fixation pattern of living arrangements of the elderly women. A pilot study revealed the importance of literacy in the pattern of living arrangements and therefore the literacy of the state is taken into account while the study is designed. Prior to the collection of data the sample of the study showed a correlation between income and attitude formation which changes the life style. Weightage is given to all these factors while the sample is decided. Taking all these factors into consideration, it is decided to take ‘income as the main independent variable, along with age, religion and education. The universe of this study is Trivandrum city and the concentration was two old age homes and their neighbourhoods. As the study was not to frame macro level theories but to formulate micro level conclusions (hypotheses), the sample size is reduced to 150 which is distributed among the major religious groups taking into account their income, education, religion and age.

Table below (T. No. 1) shows the distribution of the sample keeping income as the main independent variable and age, religion and education as the other variables. This proportionate sample is based on samples mentioned above. The elderly women are concentrated ‘m the middle income group rather than the lower and upper income groups.

Elderly people are widely distributed among all the groups. Therefore one has to study the elderly women and their problems taking all the variables available. The women living in the two old age homes are also taken for this study. Among the lower income group, majority are with their families whereas in the upper income group 40% of the elderly women are living in their homes. The old age care in Kerala is understood in many ways according to this study. The elderly are studied in their families and also in institutions.

Development of institutional care for the handicapped, infirm and aged persons in India has a long history. The first old age home in India is supposed to have been started in early 18th century, but information is available from 1782 onwards. Today, the services are mainly provided by the non-government, private, voluntary, non-profit and particularly the religious and charitable organizations. The central and state governments still play a very negligible role in providing care to the deprived sections of society. The Madras Institute of Ageing, in its monograph, listed 329 institutions which are caring of the elderly. lrudaya Rajan reports that Tamil Nadu & Kerala has the highest number of old age homes when compared to other states of India. As of 1998, there were 71 old, age homes in Tamil Nadu & 70 in Kerala. But compared to other states in India, Kerala leads the list in having the highest number of aged persons in institutions ( 21.89%). (lrudayaRajan et al. 1995)

The institutionalization of old can be seen in two ways: – first total institutionalization and the second type is a partial institutional care. In the latter, elderly ladies go during the daytime and spend their time either by engaging themselves in some work or they spend their time in the company of other elderly ladies. Among the existing institutions in Kerala, 92% provide total care 3% offer day care service and the remaining institutions are engaging in health care and self employment activities for the elderly. This type of institutional care is emerging in Kerala as self-employment schemes, as many day care centers are ready to take care of the elderly on payment basis. In this study it was found that 10% of the lower income group, 20% of the middle and 28% of the upper income group are in the partial care category. There are elderly women who are staying on their own or staying with friends and the trend again is slanting towards the upper income group. On the whole, the present study reveals that it is the upper income group who face problems, as there is nobody to look after them during old age.

Among the lower income group the women go to old age homes after the death of their husbands. The main reason is the adjustment problem with their daughters-in-law or the hesitation of their daughters to look after them for want of money. Many elderly women go to free homes run by Government or voluntary agencies. ‘ A visit to these homes will reveal that these women adjust well even when the conditions are bad, unlike others in their families. They prefer this, as the surroundings here give them peace. Almost 90% of the elderly women who participated in this study have children but their children have either migrated or they have acute adjustment problems which lead them to institutions. A survey of old age homes in the state of Maharashtra by Dandekar (1993) reveals that the prime reason for the aged moving into old age homes is due to the lack of proper care for them within family set up. Another study of the inmates of old age homes in the state of Gujarat (Shah, 1993) lists lack of home care as the prominent reason cited by the elderly for their preference to stay in old age homes. Besides economic reasons, family quarrels and handicaps were found to have induced the elderly to move into old age homes. The study done in Kerala and Tamil Nadu also reports similar reasons (Irudaya Rajan et al., 1995).

The living arrangements were made mainly by themselves. 34.7% of the sample living in their families are happy to stay there as they feel secure in the company of their kin. Among the 32% who have decided to got to institutions only 52.1% chose to go to the homes. Among the others, 20.8% were forced to go as they had no other place to go. Their children are away from the state and they themselves are migrants from other parts of the State. A conversation with one lady revealed that she neither felt at home in her native place nor was she in a position to go along with her daughter, in spite of the fact that she was economically sound. It was her friend who suggested the old age home and she decided to go there. In the homes, women who have contact with their families are happy.

The main problem of the elderly is that they never anticipate this part of their life. It is a natural phenomenon that people are conscious only about their children as the social law says the elderly will be taken care of by their children. This social law is fading away in the background of modernization and the elderly are left with themselves. One has to understand that taking care of the old is not that easy in the present society especially in the nuclear family set up due to many encumbrances the family faces. Women going for work, lack of proper housemaids, erratic office timings, lack of traditional holdings etc. contribute to the difficulties faced by the young in taking care of the old. Though the elderly knew all these things during the pre-old phase, they lived in “hope”. This study gives an interesting result on these issues.

The study shows that the women of middle income groups are more prepared than the women of upper income group. When 75% of the lower economic groups women felt that they would become a burden to their own families in future, 20 % of the upper income group felt like that. 58.3% of the middle income group also felt that they would become a burden in the future. This shows that the changed life pattern of the former groups would be quite acceptable whereas the latter group would not face it, as they never anticipated that they would become a burden. In the case of upper income group, the life style is such that they never planned for the loss of income or they never took into consideration the individuality of growing children. They always concentrated on life around themselves. Thus the mental shock would be acute among these groups when living arrangements are shattered. It is found that the transition of living arrangements is made without any problem among the upper income groups unlike the lower and middle income groups. Irwin Deutscher notes that much of the descriptive studies indicate that it is a difficult period of life and that both theory and clinical experiments suggest that most people would have difficulty in making the transition. (Irwin Deutscher, 1962)

According to this study the transition to old age is smooth among the middle income group as they are well prepared. 45% of the middle income group ladies thought in advance about their future and as a result, almost 58.3% of the middle income groups knew that they would not be looked after by the family members and therefore they took precautionary measures for their old age. This trend is just the reverse as far as the women of the upper income groups are concerned. Sharma et al in their study of India’s elderly cites that the middle income group showed a serious concern with regard to life preparatory measures. The idea of savings was strongly advocated for a smooth independent life in old age. Gore says that care given by the young largely depends upon the support system as caring is inspired by the material or the non-material support the young derived from the old (Gore, 1992). In Sharma’s study it was proved that saving otherwise was termed to supplementing the sudden dip in income level soon after active working years of life. Thus the study finds that the middle income group was seen to be more comfortable in their old age.

When they are prepared for old age, the women are concerned about the avenues available for them during the old age. Social Security Schemes, help from voluntary organization and the old age homes are some issues analyzed in this study. The International Labour Organisation defines social security schemes as one that provide the citizen with benefits designed to prevent or cure deceases or to support them when they are unable to earn and to restore them to activity. There are various voluntary organizations for the aged like the Age Care India, A Study of the Elderly Women in Kerala CARITAS India, Helpage India, Indian Association of Person, Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare. Again lower income groups know more about these aspects than the middle and upper income groups. It is the upper income groups who are less knowledgeable. A closer view reveals that 27.5% of the lower income group know about Government policies and only 14% of the upper income group are aware of this. But among the middle income groups 53.3% women knew that Government has various measures under old age schemes. Likewise when 92% of the upper income groups do not know the concept of NGOs only 41.7% of the middle income groups are not aware of the NGOs and their work in this field.

However 82.5% of the lower income groups are also not aware of the work done by voluntary organizations. The reason for this non-awareness is yet to be found out. Though there is a strong propaganda through the mass media on Government policies, the impact of these are seen only among a section of the elderly population. Vernacular press also gives a wide propaganda on various issues of the old. This means that even in a state of high literacy, old age issues are at the backstage and much work is to be done for creating awareness.

About institutional care, only the lower income group are less aware than the middle and the upper income groups. This again shows that the role of family in old age care is slowly declining and it is slowly replaced by institutional care. In the institutions the majority are from the upper income brackets as the paid homes are collecting huge amounts. The tendency to go to the old age homes is mainly from the security point of view as they feel that they will get psychological care.

The traditional living arrangements of the elderly are breaking down due to modernization and old age care is taken up by outside institutions. Just like child care, which is weaned from the families, old age care is also moving to institutions due to the pressure of moden living. When the population shows a drastic increase in old people, society is yet to fmd out a means for their peaceful living. The consolation is that the elderly themselves are doing a purposeful socialization for themselves through anticipatory preparation. Now the trend is that the elderly do a lot of mental exercises on various patterns of living arrangements and then they choose the best according to their socioeconomic conditions. But this exercise is done only by a small section of the elderly population. This is to be spread out to the whole elderly population for their healthy, physical and mental well being.

REFERENCES
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lrudaya Rajan S, U.S.Mishra and P.S. Sartna. “An Agenda for National Policies on Aging in India”. Research and Development Journal, (Journal of Helpage India), 1.2. 1995.

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Registrar General of India. Census of India 1991. Population Projections for India and States, 1996-2016. Ministry of Home Affairs, Govermnent of India, New Delhi: 1996.

Sharma, M.L and T.M.Dak. (eds). Aging in India: Challenge for the Society, New Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1987.

Contributor
JACOB JOHN KATTAKAYAM. Director cum Professor, Academic Staff College, University of Kerala. Was the president of the Kerala Sociological Society. Visiting professor at the Morgan State University, USA in 1987 and Duke University, North Carolina, USA. Attended many international conferences and workshops. Authored four books, edited three and publishedseveral research papers. Chief Editor, Kerala Sociologist and Honorary Director of the Centre for Gerentological Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. The Secretary of the Indian Sociological Society and Executive Committee Member of the International Sociological Association.