Elderly women in India: Concerns and way forward

Abstract

The Indian joint family was a well-developed system to take care of the needy in the family. The social fabric has changed with globalization leading to migration and breaking up of joint families into nuclear families. The women of the family are among the worst to be impacted. As the nurturer before she realizes she is already past her prime and unlike the west where the parents are left alone by their children quite early in their life thus leaving them with sufficient time and energy to decide the route of their life, in India, it is yet not so. The paper proposes to trace the problems faced by the elderly especially the women in the Indian society. The paper shares with its readers some of the practices adopted within India and abroad to engage the elderly women actively so that they become productive citizens of the society.