Preface

Abuse of senior citizens is often an unspoken issue in India. Compared to other kinds of abuse, senior citizen abuse is unique in the fact that it often happens within the same household in which the senior citizens are staying, the abusers are family members on whom the person is dependent and most often the abuses go unreported.

Even though traditionally Indian culture promotes respect for senior citizens, with the changing lifestyles and moving away from joint families and even nuclear families, abuse has become a big issue. Some people may treat their senior citizen parents or family members as a burden and not look after them well, others may be more interested in their property to which they may hold the title, and ill treat them in order to get rights to the property. This problem may be becoming worse because of the Covid pandemic, since senior citizens may be less mobile, less familiar with apps and services and also scared to move out for fear of catching the disease.

Moreover, senior citizens are often scared psychologically of courts and police and may be unfamiliar with laws protecting them, in case of abuses. Lack of familiarity with technology is another big problem, since many of the protections depend on access to the internet and filing online complaints at various web portals and senior citizen helplines. Because of all this, senior citizens even if they face abuse are reluctant or not able to report it.

Although laws and institutions do exist in India to prevent abuse and provide relief to senior citizens, in practice there may be lack of awareness of such laws, also it may be difficult for senior citizens to access these protections due to reasons mentioned. Hence, in this book we focus on the practical steps that a senior citizen or their well-wishers need to take to obtain support and protection.

 

Important Law Books/ References Consulted

• Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 (Bare Act) – 2020 by LexisNexis
• Maintenance & Welfare of Parents & Senior Citizens Act, 2007 – 1 January 2015 by Professional Book Publishers
• The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 – 1 January 2019 by Sathpal Puliani (Author, Editor)
• Elder Abuse and Legal Protection by Dr. Harpreet Kaur. Central Law Publications
• Criminal Procedure Code 1973 Volume 1 and 2 by Durga Das Basu. LexisNexis
• Reports by HelpAge India and AgeWell Foundation

 

About the authors

Siva Prasad Bose is a writer of introductory books on Indian laws. He is currently retired after many years of service in Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited. He received his engineering degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and has a law degree from Meerut University, Meerut. His interests lie in the fields of family law, civil law, law of contracts, and any areas of law related to power electricity related issues.

Joy Bose is a software engineer and a data scientist by profession.

What is senior citizens abuse

Abuse can be defined as cruel or violent treatment of any person that is intended to harm that person, especially when coming from a person who is trusted. When the person being abused by someone (the abuser) is a senior citizen, it can be termed as elderly abuse or senior citizen abuse. It can be one incident of abuse or multiple repeated incidents. It can also be lack of an action, such as deliberate neglect of the needs of an elderly person. It can take various forms, and effects both male and female senior citizens.

The United Nations and World Health Organizations have highlighted elder abuse, or senior citizens abuse, as a global issue that effects millions of older people around the world. The UN General Assembly passed resolution 66/127, designating June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day to raise awareness about this problem.

In this chapter, we look at the various types of abuse which senior citizens might face in India.

 

1.1 Physical abuse

Physical abuse includes physical violence to the body, such as by beating. It can also include other forms of harm such as depriving someone of food or shelter, especially if that person was or is dependent on the abuser. It can take forms such as evicting a senior citizen out of the house where they were residing together with the abuser, neglect by not giving medicines or feeding them bad or stale food or not giving them regular meals altogether.

Senior citizens may be physically weak due to old age and may be helpless to fight back at such abuse, especially from close family members with whom they are living and on whom they are dependent for basic necessities.

 

1.2 Mental, emotional or psychological abuse

Mental abuse includes various forms of mental or psychological harm to the abused person by the abuser, rather than physical violence. This can take forms such as giving threats, humiliation, insults, verbally abusing the senior citizen, deliberately not listening to their concerns, deliberately doing actions to make their daily life difficult in various cruel ways such as depriving them of basics like water or electricity and so on. It can also take forms like forced confinement or isolation. Emotional abuse can also take the form of emotional blackmail.

The long-term effect of such abuse is to deprive the abused person of their self-esteem and well-being. It can lead to effects such as depression and other mental health issues in the senior citizens subjected to such abuse.

 

1.3 Neglect and dependency related abuse

Many senior citizens are dependent on their grown children, particularly on their sons and daughters, including daughters in law who are living with them. They may not have fixed incomes since they are no longer able to work as in their youth, even though the property may be in their name. So they may be dependent on others for basics such as food, water, clothing, housing etc. In some cases, the senior citizens might have some income from their pension but still might be dependent for other necessities such as food and medical care.

This kind of dependency situation can be used to abuse the senior citizen by depriving them of the things they are dependent on. This can take the form of neglect. Neglect of senior citizens can take different forms, such as not caring for them properly, not providing them proper food and medicines in a timely fashion, not ensuring proper medical treatment as per their needs, not providing proper emotional care or respect, and so on.

 

1.4 Financial and property related abuse

Financial abuse can take forms such as not supporting the senior citizen financially with respect to their basic needs, stealing the financial or other property of the senior citizens, or forcing them to turn over their property or financial assets to the abuser. This kind of abuse is more common when the perpetrator is a family member or close relative, even the son or daughter, of the persons being abused.

The abusers may feel that the senior citizens are too weak or vulnerable to fight back, so it

Imprint

Publisher: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Publication Date: 02-10-2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-0754-6

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
Dedicated to all senior citizens in India who are facing abuse, or who have faced abuse in the past