‘Seniors face gender discrimination too’

AHMEDABAD: The HelpAge India 2018 report, in which Ahmedabad was one of the 23 Indian cities studied, states that 46% of elderly women face some sort of discrimination.
A study by an assistant professor at IIT Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) found that elderly women at old age homes had to take permission to go out to visit temples or for recreation and this was not the case for men.
Dr Tannistha Samanta, assistant professor with IIT-Gn, spoke about the disparity at a seminar, “Gender, Health and Women’s Issues in Gujarat: Implications for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 5”, organized by various Gujarat-based NGOs on Tuesday.
A qualitative study by Samanta at old age homes in Ahmedabad found that the most of the residents chose to go to homes due to economic distress or sustained neglect by family members.
The study also found that old homes were understaffed and had poor infrastructure with limited medical facilities available.
“Elderly women also faced restrictions on movement outside the homes, with most reporting that permission was needed to go out to temples or for recreation. The permission rule did not apply to elderly men,” she said.
She added that the UN Madrid Plan on the elderly has not been adhered to and there was no specific effort to link SDGs to welfare of the elderly.
“The study by HelpAge India found that 46% of respondents reported abuse in some form. This is surprising, given that a large proportion of the elderly (83%) live in joint families and 71% own property,” she said.
In her recommendations, Samanta said need-based data collection must begin, geriatric healthcare needs should be addressed, time-use must be studied to measure unpaid care work, elderly-friendly cities, towns and villages need to be built and the idea of old-age homes needs to be reconfigured.