"2.1 OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUE IN INDIA"India has around 100 million elderly at present and the number is expected toincrease to 323 million, constituting 20 per cent of the total population, by 2050,"the report jointly brought out by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and4 Help Age International said. . The statement shows that the percentage of elderlyand aged in the country is on a steady increase, perhaps due to medicaladvancement and changing demographic scenario of the country. However, theproblem associated with this increasing aged population is the accompanyingincrease in incidence of elderly abuse in the country.It seems like in other developed countries, even in a country like India, there is norespite from the evil of elderly abuse. It is a matter of woeful plight that a countrywhich has been traditionally known for its long established family ties, joint familysystem and respect towards elders ,now predominantly experiences the problem ofelderly abuse and disrespect towards the elders. It is a bitter truth that in the presentcontemporary world, many Indian sons and their wives, do not treat their oldparents well, either denying them access to basic facilities like food, shelter,medicines etc. or by showing disregard towards them in form of abandonment orverbal or physical abuse. In the Indian context, amongst the potential causes ofelder abuse are the processes that have accompanied the modernization ofsocieties. Urbanization of the country is one such phenomenon, which has led tothe emergence of nuclear families, leading to erosion of traditional bond, warmth5 and love within the families over the years. Moreover, migration of workers withtheir spouses from one city to another often leads them to leave their parentsbehind in their home towns. Loosening of family ties which has been an obviousresult of these factors has made people ignorant about their duties towards theirelders and this ignorance ultimately gets reflected in various forms of abuse againstelders.According to a survey report by Help Age India, „Elder Abuse in India 2013?,23percent of the senior citizens in India suffered from elderly abuse in 2013, as4 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-10-01/news/34198051_1_centenarians-elder- persons-india-and-china; last accessed on November 27, 2013 at 17:30 hours.5 http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-no-respite-from-elderly-abuse-in-india-1887259; last accessedon November 26, 2013 at 18:40 hours.28 against 31percent in 2012(HT, June 15,2013). One in every 3 senior citizens in thecountry faces abuse within the family. At a nationwide level, the most commonform of abuse is disrespect (79percent) trailed by verbal abuse (76percent) andneglect (69percent), further followed by beating or slapping (39percent). Thereport also revealed that daughter-in laws account for about 39percent of elderlyabuse cases implying that they are the worst abusers ,traced by sons(38percent).But,the view that in many cases the real troublemakers are sons who easily get away6 as the society is ruled by patriarchal norms, cannot be ignored. The survey evenbrought to light an astonishing fact that on average as large as 70percent of the7 elderly abuse cases in India go unreported every year. 2.2 INCIDENCE OF THE ISSUE IN DELHI The aged population in the city unwillingly faces all forms of abuses, includingphysical, financial, sexual, verbal, emotional, and, the major causes identifiedbehind this problem are financial dependency of the elderly on their children,healthcare problems of the aged, property issues and household related problems.In addition, the issue of elderly abuse in Delhi can be viewed majorly as a result ofthe following two reasons:1)The National Capital Territory of Delhi, being an expensive city demands goodamount of resources in order to lead a decent living standard of life. To earn thisliving people are forced to work day in and out due to which they get deeplyentangled in their daily routines, and do not realize their responsibilities adopt acallous attitude towards their parents, which ultimately results in the negligenceand disregard towards their parents.2) The process of rampant and continuous urbanization of the city, which has beenaccompanied by nuclear family norms, high rents of housing, increasedexpenditure related to maintenance of urban quality of life, substantially high feesof schooling, and the fact that most women are employed in productive6 http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-no-respite-from-elderly-abuse-in-india-1887259; last accessedon November 26, 2013 at 18:40 hours.7 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/70-elderly-abuse-cases-not-reported/article1- 1076512.aspx ; last accessed on November 27, 2013 at 19:30 hours.29 employment, have all added to the intensity of the problem in the city. This isbecause members of the families residing in the city prefer living independentlyand are often left with insufficient time and resources to devote to the eldestmembers of the household. In addition, poverty acts as a catalyst to this form ofabuse as poor families may not be able to take care of the elder people due tofinancial constraints.According to a report on “Elder Abuse Crime in India,” released in June 2012 by„Help Age India (an NGO working for the aged), Delhi NCR experienced a rise inelderly abuse in 2012 when compared to the same 2011. In the year 2012, 29.82percent of the elderly interviewed claimed that they witnessed abuse, as against8 12percent in the year 2011. Regarding the year 2013, the findings portray thataround one-fifth (20percent) of the aged underwent elderly abuse and 60 percent of9 the elderly do not report the abuse (HT, June 14.2013). According to the report of„Elder Abuse in India 2013?, “in 34percent of the cases in Delhi, it was the son,who was the main perpetrator of abuse and in 24percent of cases, the daughters-in- law were the offenders.”8 http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/indias-elder-abuse-graph-is-rising- says-survey/article3534885.ece ; last accessed on November 26, 2013 at 20:30 hours.9 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/70-elderly-abuse-cases-not-reported/article1- 1076512.aspx ; last accessed on November 26, 2013 at 4:45 hours.30 2.3 LITERATURE REVIEWThere is an extensive amount of literature to measure the prevalence of elderlyabuse in various regions of the world.This set of literature exists mainly in theform of survey reports that have been prepared by both international and non- governmental organizations.The final report of the „New York State Elder Abuse Prevalence Study? (2011) thataimed to evaluate „the prevalence and incidence of various forms of elder abuse ina large representative statewide sample of older New Yorkers over 60 years of agethrough direct interviews? found a significant gap between the estimates of elderly10 abuse as evaluated by the aforesaid study and the incidence of abuse as evaluatedby the formal elder abuse service system. Surprisingly, the gap between the studyestimates and formal elderly support service institutions was as high as 24 times.Moreover, the study reported that in one year alone (2008-09), around 260,000aged people had suffered at least one form of elder abuse. Psychological abuse wasfound to be the most commonly reported form of abuse among the elderly in NewYork.The report on the „Abuse and Neglect of Older People in Ireland?(2010) which wasbased on face to face interviews of people aged 65 years and above residing incommunity dwellings during April and May, 2010, concluded that during the past12 months, financial and psychological abuse had been the most frequent forms ofabuse. The report highlighted that women had been more vulnerable than men tovarious kinds of abuse. Also, most of the participants of the interview confessedthat they had not reported cases of abuse to anyone even if the abuse had persistedfor a long duration. The exploratory study conducted by the World Health Organization, „MissingVoices: views of older persons on elder abuse? (2002) played a pivotal role inexamining the issue in 8 developing countries: Australia, India, Brazil, Canada,10‘Prevalence’ refers to the number of older adults who have ever experience elder mistreatment since turning 60.‘Incidence’ refers to the number of new cases of elder abuse within a specified period of time. (These workingdefinitions were developed by Survey designers. 31 "