Managuluru City Tops The List In Elderly Abuse

A report by a non-profit organisation Help Age India has termed Mangaluru, top in elderly abuse. In the survey conducted as many as 47% of elderly individuals in the city said they had experienced abuse. The report named Elder Abuse in India – 2018, was published on Thursday after surveying individuals above 60 years of age in 23 cities. Nearly five thousand individuals were interviewed for the survey.

Among the top five cities in elderly abuse featured Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhopal and New Delhi. The cities that reported the lowest figures of abuse were Jammu, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Guwahati. The report has made stark revelations with as many as 60% of respondents accepting the prevalence of elderly abuse in Indian society and nearly 88% of them saying the incidence of such abuse was high. In a shocking revelation, 50% of the respondents who alleged abuse said the main perpetrator was their son and 34% saying, it was their daughter-in-law. Those who said they experienced abuse told the NGO that the most common form of it was disrespect followed by verbal abuse and neglect.Many respondents even said that the time their children and grandchildren spent with them had decreased since the advent of mobile phones and computers.

An overwhelming majority – 85% – of the elders surveyed said they live with their families. However, a majority of them who said they experienced abuse did not report it and wanted to “maintain confidentiality of the family matter”.