THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Around 67.5 per cent of young adults feel that staying active and socialising more will prevent senior citizens from being abused by family members. These were some of the findings of a recent survey conducted by Helpage India on Elder Abuse targeting young adults. Helpage India had earlier conducted a survey on the same among the elderly population and the recent one was carried out to ascertain the viewpoint of young adults towards such abuse.
The survey targeted young adults between 25 and 45 years of age, living atleast with one elderly parent. The study covered 10 cities, most of which were surveyed earlier and had high incidences of elder abuse cases.
The cities were Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur and Madurai. 50 per cent of the respondents were working men and 25 per cent were women. The rest of the 25 per cent were stay at home females. A total of 200 households were chosen for the study from 20 middle class and 20 upper middle class localities from each city.
The adults were studied based on their levels of awareness, perception, experience and intent on the issue of elder abuse. While 73 per cent youth felt that elder abuse is present in the society, all of them agree that elders are not much satisfied with their quality of living. Only 27 per cent felt that elder abuse didn’t exist. Over 42 per cent youth say that elder abuse is the bane of developing societies like India in particular, while 28 per cent feel it is more rampant in India.
Experience of elder abuse among relatives has been noted to be about 32.5 per cent. The highest incidence of 55 per cent and 51 per cent were recorded from respondents in Kolkata and Mumbai, while there were only 23 and 24.5 per cent who had such personal experience from Mumbai and Chennai. 52 per cent men and 48.5 per cent women pointed out that their daughters-in-law are the main abusers. 29 per cent men and 27 per cent women blame the son for elder abuse.
As a measure to prevent elder abuse, 32 per cent youth felt that they need to spend more time with elders while 29 per cent felt their opinions need to be given more importance. The study also found out that in the middle income households, 18 to 34-year-olds were the main perpetrators, while those who were living without spouse(61.2 per cent) were more vulnerable to abuse. According to the study, 37 per cent respondents which also include 92 per cent respondents from Delhi do not wish to involve in preventing elder abuse.
