By Udai Khanna
On 6th June, 2013, almost all national dailies in India carried a headline to the tune that “Chained by sons, 93-year-old forced to live on terrace of his own house”. The act, despised by all, made it to news channel debates, but finally ended in rock bottom. What the 93 year old Anantaiah Shetty had to go through, was an aggravated form of what is called Victimization of the Elderly. He’s not the only one. More than 31% of older persons reported facing abuse. 24% older people faced abuse almost daily. More than 80% of these did not report the matter to uphold family honour.
As stated by Separoviae, “victimology” is the scientific knowledge of the victim, irrespective of the phenomenological and etiological characteristics of an individual victim’s personality and the process of its victimization. Among them is the theory of elder victimization, like other crimes that are frequently perpetrated by acquaintances, family, friends, or other people known to the victim, often remains hidden.
Most elder abuse and neglect takes place at home and a few in nursing homes
About 95 percent of older people live on their own or with their spouses, children, siblings or other relatives, not in institutional settings. When elder abuse happens, family, other household members or paid caregivers are usually the abusers.
There is no single pattern of elder abuse
More commonly, elder abuse is related to changes in living situations and relationships brought about either by the older person’s growing frailty and dependence on others for companionship and for meeting basic needs or by a family member’s increased reliance on an older relative for shelter and financial support.
Victimology and elder victimization
Victimology — a scientific knowledge of the victim, covering all phenomenological and etiological characteristics of the victim that lead to a crime. Similarly, elder victimization focusses on older adult population that falls prey to crimes and the reasons for the same. Physical, financial, mental infirmities land up the elderly in a zone that makes them vulnerable to acts of victimization. Routine Activities Theory suggests the omnipresence of criminals and the vulnerable situation of the elderly perpetrates into crime. Statistics show alarming rise of rates of such incidences in India. Indian legislation of 2007 for welfare of senior citizens is only as it does little to help the cause. A limit to the amount of grantable maintenance is an example of the sloppy provisions contained, which give little or no help to the said population as there already exist similar provisions for maintenance in Criminal Procedure Code and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act. A similar Act in Singapore for the aged, on the contrary, covers all the loopholes that we see in ours and is acclaimed worldwide for its effectiveness. Henceforth, a careful restructuring is needed in our law so as to make it gather steam and make it more useful and effective.
It isn’t just older adults who have poor physical health or cognitive impairments
Older individuals who are frail, alone or depressed as well as those with a physical disability or mental illness are vulnerable to abuse. Those who do not have these obvious risk factors can find themselves in abusive situations and relationships.
There are five major theories of victimization
There are five major theories of victimization, each leading to a particular crime, which are Victim Precipitation, Lifestyle, Equivalent Group Hypothesis, Proximity Hypothesis, and Routine Activities Theory. The one that best explains the vulnerability of the elder strata of the society against crimes comes to be the Routine Activities Theory. This theory simply suggests the omnipresence of motivated criminals who are looking for suitable targets — ones which are unguarded, vulnerable or weak, or lacking financial independence. According to this theory, the weak circumstances of the victim are the trigger for the crime.
At present the approach of various studies across the world is to understand what elder abuse is. Treatment of the same tends to be marginalized, operating within a very different and smaller policy agenda when compared to issues such as sexual and racist violence. Definitions of elder abuse are highly contested, but most include the physical, sexual, and there is disagreement about the location of behaviours which “count” as elder abuse.
Comparison of Legislative provision in India against that of Singapore
In the year 2007, the Parliament enacted the “The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007” that sought “to provide for more effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens guaranteed and recognised under the Constitution.” Article 41 of our Constitution is the constitutional provision that spells out the obligation — “the state shall…make provisions …public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness…”
- The 2007 legislation sidelines this duty endowed to the legislation by use of “may establish old age homes” in its section 19. Neither was there ever an embargo on creation of old age homes, nor does this section make it obligatory for the State to do so.
- Section 9 of the said legislation gives a right to claim maintenance from children — but puts an unnecessary limit of 10,000. Different circumstances may pervade for different people. Some of the elderly lot may have the need to let out huge expenses on some or the other medical treatments. Example: If a person is suffering from cancer, the chemotherapy drugs in most cases can cost up to 12,000 per dose more than once than a month! Therefore this limit defiles the entire purpose of the grant of maintenance.
- Section 9 provides nothing new specifically, as similar provisions for grant of maintenance were already existent in The Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act. Only making things worse, is the limit.
- Section 4(4) presents a paradoxical provision — as to a relative who is liable to maintain the Senior Citizen — is the one who will inherit the property of the senior citizen. So this means that within the life of that Senior citizen, he has to disclose the contents of his will in order to show that the said relative is the one who will inherit the property. Declaring the contents of the will inter vivos, make it lose its significance.
Taking into contrast with this legislation, is a legislation that has won worldwide acclaim for its flawless provisions — from Singapore, namely “Maintenance of Parents Act”. We shall scrutinize its specific sections that come into contrast against the ones in India.
- There is no embargo as to the maximum amount that can be awarded as maintenance — in fact, in the possible reasons that warrant the grant of maintenance the Act aptly covers all — medical treatment costs, housing costs, maintenance of spouse/children who cohabit, etc.
- The elders will receive more help to resolve their maintenance issues with their children without having to file a Maintenance Order against them.
- The amount of maintenance to be paid is decided by the Tribunal based on a set of criteria including: financial needs, earning capacity, expenses incurred as well as physical health of the parent and children without any particular limit.
Conclusion
Effective interventions can prevent or stop elder abuse. Increasing awareness among physicians, mental health professionals, home health care workers and others who provide services to older adults and family members can help break patterns of abuse or neglect, and both the person experiencing the abuse and the abuser can receive needed help.
The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 falls dangerously short of catering for any objective that it was set out to be enacted for. A stronger, more assertive and firm legislation is needed — if ever we really wish to prevent our elders from falling prey to ever-rising crimes and ill-treatment.
Respect for elders has always been an impenetrable and irreplaceable virtue in our beloved country and now it’s time we safeguard it as it stands the test of rapidly changing times. At the end, we would like to quote Leo Tolstoy’s remark: “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”