Senior citizens living in the temple city are the most abused in the country, reveals a report based on a sample nationwide survey.
According to the survey done by HelpAge India, 63.25 per cent of Madurai’s elderly reported abuse, followed by Kanpur (Uttra Pradesh) with 60 per cent, Hyderabad (37.50 percent), Bikaner (Rajasthan, 31.07) and Nagpur (Maharastra, 28.62).
The sample survey was done on those above 60 years of age in 24 cities, including five metros (Tier I) and 19 Tier II cities, across the country.
HelpAge India, which has been conducting such surveys for the last three years, interviewed 6,748 persons, including 3,329 male and 3,329 female respondents, this year.
“This does not mean that most citizens of Madurai are offenders, it only indicates that the elderly in the city are the most expressive and come forward to report abuses,” said S Edwin Babu, joint director, Programmes, HelpAge India (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka).
Disrespect, verbal abuse and neglect are the most common forms of abuses faced by senior citizens.
In Madurai, 36 per cent of respondents reported disrespect as the main form of abuse, followed by verbal abuse (33 per cent) and neglect (31 per cent).
Overall, daughters-in-law are the frontrunners in abusing the elderly, followed by sons, according to the data collected through the survey.
Edwin Babu further said that most of the abusers belonged to the middle class and upper middle class family.
In order to safeguard their image in society, and to avoid any loss of reputation of themselves or their families many of them have not let their parents move out of the house, though they were not ready to take care of them.
Instead, in an attempt to vent out their frustration on the senior citizens of the house, they confine them within four walls and hurt them.