Aging & Gerontology

Abstract

The proposed paper examines the shifting contours and experience of aging and care provision amongst urban Indian older persons residing alone. India is currently witnessing a massive shift in demographic and developmental processes. On the one hand increased life longevity and decreasing fertility rates are resulting in a rising proportion of aging populations (Census of India 2011; LASI 2020). On the other hand, post liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy, transnational migration for work in the service and information technology sector in particular has seen a phenomenal rise (Ugargol et al., 2016; Visaria 2001). In a country where elderly care was largely embedded in the patriarchal joint family (Jadhav. et al., 2013), these developments are complicating family based care arrangements for elderly. Situated within this context, this paper illuminates the experiences of aging in absence of care for older persons living alone whose adult children have migrated transnationally and illustrates the shifting understandings of aging as a ‘lethargic experience’, ‘debilitating process’ to ‘an active and engaged phase’. Further, the paper argues that despite the demographic and developmental transformations, the Indian state’s stance on elderly care has largely been that of upholding the family-household unit as the main care-providing institution, thus evading questions of state-sponsored geriatric care facilities, old age pensions and health services. To fill this vacuum, several market-driven mechanisms of elderly care ranging from Antara, Age Venture India, Avaza, Emoha, Epoch, Elcare etc. have sprung up in India promising to offer ‘family like care’ or ‘home based care’. However, access to these remains complicated and differentiated by class, gender, spatial locations etc.

Biography

Shivangi Patel is a PhD candidate in the department of Sociology in the Indraprastha Institute of Information technology, Delhi, India. She has completed her post graduation and M.Phil. in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi School of Economics (DSE) respectively. She is currently working on aging and care circulation in the context of Indian transnational migration. She has presented her paper in several national and international conferences including 47th All India Sociological Conference and 17th EASA Biennial Conference 2022, organized by The European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). She is going to present her work in the upcoming IUAES World Anthropology Congress 2023 and Age and Care Conference 2023, organized by the University of Graz in Austria. She is also a part of the special interest group of British Sociological Gerontology (BSG) Global South, working dedicatedly in the field of ‘Aging and care for elderly’.