Author: Saheli Guha Neogi Ghatak

National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), National Commission for Women (NCW), WHO, reports during COVID-19 illuminated about the increasing rate of domestic violence which includes women and child related domestic violence but ignored domestic violence against elderly people. The reason behind that is the issue of elder abuse is still unrecognized and not adequately acknowledged as a community apprehension irrespective of pre and within COVID- 19 scenario. 15^th June is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, so we should be aware about the issue and it is important for caregivers, health care professionals, and those in the helping professions to know the signs of abuse and take step against it.

What is elder abuse?

Mistreatment of elderly is referred to as ‘‘elder abuse’’. Elderly Abuse is done either by an individual person, institution, community or larger society. Abuse may be done either once or repeatedly, various forms of abuses are-

Physical abuse related to the cautious acts leading to physical harm which includes beating, hitting , slapping, and pushing of elder person.

Verbal abuse consists of the intended actions mainly in form of words, includes insulting or using filthy language, shouting, and unnecessary blaming of an elder.

Economic/ material abuse related to any premeditated action which involves illegal or non-authorized use of an elder person’s economic/ material resources, falsifying their signature, forcing them to sign documents which may lead to lose their financial or any material resources.

Sexual abuse implies to any deliberate act which involves forcing sexual activities, includes rape, molest or showing pornographic materials, forcing elder people to commit sexual activities amongst themselves or kissing an elder person.

Neglect is intentional failure to meet one’s own responsibilities in caring for the elder person-such as denying to attend to their needs while the resources are presented, leaving them alone without any helper.

Spiritual abuse comprise of planned act to harm the spiritual wellbeing of the elder people. Examples here include false accusations of elder people as witches/wizards; condemning them to be behind misfortunes in society, or being demonized among others

Political abuse related to hurt the civil and political life of the elder person such as forcing or making the elder people to vote for a certain political party or candidate in an election or intentional use of elder people’s civic/political documents like national registration cards or voters cards by certain political regimes or parties to make a certain political party or candidate win an election contrary to the desires of the particular elder person (Wolf, 2000; Iborra 2009; Mupila, 2008; WHO, 2012, Help Age International, 2011; Kabelenga, 2015).

Other practices of elder abuses such as medication abuse, loss of respect; scapegoating – identifying and blaming elderly- usually elderly widow women are blamed  for any misfortune, neglect including isolation, abandonment and social exclusion, violation of human, legal and medical rights, deprivation of choices, decisions, status, finances and respect, armed conflict, displacement, disasters and emergencies can also be seen. (Shankardass, 2003 ; Puri, 2007). Various narratives of elderly person showed that instances of burning, scalding, being pushed around, experience of rough handling , spitting, forcing to eat unappetizing/ unwanted food, treating like a servant, keeping older persons’ health at risk, poor and/ or no care, putting excessive pressure on the older persons, and exposing them to humiliating behavior, institutionalizing them are also form of abuse. 

Elder abuse is still unrecognized – Definitional Disputes

Detection of elder abuse in India is tough.In India, elder abuse is difficult to document and quantify because there are number of factors which lead to the lack of recognition and insignificance of Elder Abuse. These ares-

1. Ubiquitous approach of Indian about elder abuse – We think elder abuse is a strong word which does not generally happen to elderly in our society, in our families actually, its associated with western societies. Sankardas Malakapur (2008) argued that ‘elder abuse’ equated with very violent physical behaviour is a concept associated with ‘western societies’
2. Nationalized un-consideration – Elder abuse has not achieved the same national disgrace that would lift up it to an urgent social problem and coalesce support for addressing it as other forms of family violencee child and women abuse. Lack of national data collection system regarding elder abuse relates to failing of understanding existence and prevalence of elder abuse, and fails to respond. In addition, ageism i.e negative attitude towards elderly contribute to indifference toward their mistreatment.
3. Lack of centralized recognition and funding to combat it- Recent legislation promoted by Indian Govt. significantly, ‘The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Bill’ (2007) provides an conception of elder abuse in the Indian context, without actually defining it. It is viewed as a social welfare mechanism to protect adults, parents and senior citizens, defined as 60 years of age or older. It views neglect of elderly as worry and its understanding in terms of mistreatment is similar to that voiced by the WHO, 2002, where it is seen as a indicator of the timeless phenomenon of inter-personal violence.

Elder Abuse has long been an unseen problem in our society. Abuse of elderly is growing challenge in all the societies.  There is urgent need of Strategies to combat Abuse which are – raiseing voice against abuse, contact Senior Citizen’s Association to help and guide, register complaint with the police,  nurture good intergenerational- interpersonal relationship,elderly can make SHG for active aging, awareness and education- people need to be educated to perceive the elderly favorably, structural solutions i.e. effective policy, implementation of the laws by the law enforcing agencies and the role of media should help to create positive image of elders in society and moreover consideration of elder abuse as important social problem & strong action against abuse are important strategies against the elder abuse. Raising awareness about the abuse is utmost important. As there is a stigma surrounding elder abuse, it is important to let elderly know about the types of abuse and the ways to report events of abuse. The nations of the world must create an environment in which ageing is accepted as a natural part of the life cycle, where anti-ageing attitudes are discouraged, where older people are given the right to live in dignity, free of abuse and exploitation and are given opportunities to participate fully in educational, cultural, spiritual and economic activities and have better quality of life.

“To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors.”― Tia Walker

Important Law in Favour of Elderly people

Section 125 Code of criminal Procedure 1973 (Order for maintenance of Wives, children and parents)

Domestic Violence Act, 2005- Elderly women facing abuse can lodge complaint

Male victim can seek justice under Section 323 of Indian Penal Code

Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007- Act compels a child to provide maintenance upto Rs. 10,000/-

HELP A CALL AWAY – ORGANISATION FOR ELDERLY CARE IN KOLKATA

Help line for elderly-

Kokata police-9830088884

Pronam: (033)24190740

Dignity Foundation: (033)30690999

Help Age India: 1800-345-1253

 BANCHBO healing touch: (033)65160058,(91)9903388556 (For medical emergencies only)

Saanjhbaati: (91)9748856000 CARES: (91)9830779291 Institute of Geriatric Care & Research: (91)9830372605

CARES: (91)9830779291

Society of Geriatric: (033) 65197474

References:

Bose, Ashish and Shankardass, Mala Kapur., (2004) . Growing Old in India: Voices Reveal and Statistics Speak. India: B. R. Publishing Co.

HelpAge International. (2011). HelpAge International’s submission for the Consultation on the Human Rights of Older Persons: Follow-up to the Second World Assembly on Ageing. London: HelpAge International

Wolf, R. S. (2000). The Nature and Scope of Elder Abuse: Changes in Perspective and Response over the Past 25 Years. Generations 24(2): 6−12.

Happy Mothers’ Day to all my friends who feels the emotion of motherhood irrespective of their gender and marital status. I am trying to provide a sociological understanding of motherhood through this blog. Motherhood, by definition, is all-embracing. The identity of complete women is often replaced by motherhood in our society. Under patriarchy, women are only allowed to be mother and women are expected to aspire so. Mothers appear to have mythological and powerful position and if she is mother of son/sons, then she is associated with more powerful and prestigious position. It is one of the central issues of women’s life whether or not she become mother and restrains their available choices.

Motherhood has a direct impact on women’s lives, anyway, whether or not they become mothers. There are many discourses of motherhood depending on biological essentialism and cultural performativity. Motherhood also complicates binary assumptions that identify agency as either reinforcing or resisting the subordination of women. There are many discourses of motherhood-

1. Expected childbirth vs medical discourse: The ideology of motherhood is stereotyped. Girls are normally socialized from childhood to perform the role of mother after marriage. A heterosexual couple living together is usually anticipated to give birth to children and rear them. The institution of motherhood comprises of various impending role of women as wife, as mother, as daughter-in-law and so on. In whatever economic and powerful position the women belongs to, her ‘real women hood’ is often connected with her social status of motherhood. 

The discourse of motherhood is influenced by patriarchal and religious priorities rather than equality, freedom and dignity. Following Simone de Beauvoir’s famous writing- The Second Sex (1949), we can argue that it is equally a trap that severely limits women’s individual freedom.

In India, patriarchal joint families exhilarated birth of multiple children and preferably male child. But, the health condition of mother or the risks involved in such motherhood are never taken into consideration.  The socialization of women shaped their ideology of motherhood in such a way that they choose to be mother even after being completely aware of their life threat due to pregnancy. India’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) per 100,000 live births stood at 122 in 2015-17. (SRS, 2016) The major complications that account for nearly 75 per cent of all maternal deaths are- severe bleeding (mostly bleeding after childbirth), infections (usually after childbirth), high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery and unsafe abortion.  (WHO, 2017).

2. Biological mother vs Adoptive mother: Women are expected to be mother within a few years after marriage. Women have to face constant pressure from family, relatives, friends and neighbors and in case of any delay of such endeavor the natural capability of giving birth to child is being questioned. The society constructs psychological pressure on the married women which make her unhappy and anxious.  As motherhood is socially constructed as an essential part of adult femininity, infertile wives (not husband) face social stigma. (Ghosh, B, 2016)

And to get rid from this stigma, spouse often takes help of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) for having biological child. Even after knowing economic and physical consequences of ART, a spouse chooses to do IUI or IVF for getting biological child rather than adoption of a child. Adoptive motherhood is often related to status loss and discrimination which is related to labeling, stereotyping and separation.

3. Sacred and Profane Motherhood: The notion of sacred motherhood related to good mother. The cultural image of good mother relates to the smiling, peaceful, tolerant, attentive and sympathetic caregiver which relates the motherhood with sacred hood. Ideally good mother should be involved with children, always teaching, regulating, and helping out the children at the school, co-curricular activities and play group. On the other hand, women who are having higher aspiration in carrier, more involved in own passion, love and care for themselves are categorized as bad mother i.e profane by nature. The ethical context of a good motherhood often leads women, especially the working mother, worried and being frightened about their performance. Donald Winnicott (1953: 49) has developed the notion of the “good-enough mother” whose “whole life is bound up with the needs of her child”. In contrast, women who are “masculine” or “preoccupied with themselves”

4. Intensive Mothering vs Balance Mothering: The ideal type of mother should be full time mother, fully engrossed with their children, face all the hurdles for children devoted whole life for nurturing of children without fulfilling her own wish. The intensive mothering often leads to “Hyper-mothering” (Warner, 2005), which is characterized by the increased pressure and expectations for mothers to raise literate, successful children (Sears & Sears, 2002), hold down productive jobs, support their communities, manage a clean and a spacious home in a and not feel stressed while doing it because stress is bad for your baby. In fact, the idealized image of motherhood is challenging to accomplish. It makes women feel guilt, become unhappy, and suffer from anxiety, depression due to failure of balancing between the ideal and the real life. Women who willingly become mothers and take up the care of children, in other words, need not essentially be seen as capitulating to patriarchal stereotypes of domestic femininity. So, motherhood should be balanced between fulfillment of her own choices and achievements in life and nurturing of children.

5. Identity achievement vs Identity crisis: Motherhood is not always achievement for many women. Mothers have to bear and rare children irrespective of their personal choices which lead to role conflict and often related to domestic violence. Most of the women has to sacrifice their daily life styles or forced to leave jobs even after the provision of maternity leave. The identity in motherhood often leads to identity crisis for many women. They have to negotiate a contradiction between a belief in autonomy as a central part of adulthood and a perception that autonomy is lost with motherhood. (Stephanie Lawler, 2002). Women often face postpartum depression. The global prevalence of postpartum depression has been estimated as 100‒150 per 1000 births.

6. Normal vs Deviant Motherhood : Usually society encourage women to be motherly through nurturing loving and caring attributes and reject all unusual motherhood  e single, working, hijras, other memers of LGBTQ, unloving, uncaring – mothers as  non-normative and deviant (Stephanie Lawler, 2002).

Paradigm Shift: 

The reality of mothers’ lives, however, often fails to match the “ideal mother” aspirations. Motherhood is not the only defining attribute of women in present society. Women have different identity as working women – teacher, doctor, social worker etc. and also as daughter, wife, friend and many more roles performed by women in everyday life. They are dreamers, creators, partners, homemakers, entrepreneur, mentors, and leaders. Apart from the identity of mother, a woman has many other identities which have to be recognized by the patriarchal society. The women themselves have to belief on their versatile identity and create their complete identity not only by motherhood but also by utilizing and establishing their potential abilities. The experience of motherhood is diverse across cultures, regions, socio-economic status and psychological status which have to be addressed.

 Some of the changes in social construction of motherhood need to be change –

1. Admire the choice of motherhood
2. Lingering voices against patriarchal subjugation of women in the name of good or ideal mother
3. Shifting paradigm of socialization from aspiration of good mother to self-fulfilling, successful in carrier women
4. Stop seeing parenting as mother’s issue only
5. Acceptance of single, working mothers, Hijras and other members of LGBTQ with dignity.
6. Change of popular media content for portraying the image of motherhood

Society is going through changes during COVID-19 breakdown. It is changing the way of our everyday life. COVID-19 changes our social, physical, emotional, political, economic and environmental situations. As a teacher of Sociology, I can make you understand the changing situation and its impact on society in terms of sociological understanding which is different from common sense understanding. Everybody can understand the facts of social changes by getting information through media or through their experiences but Sociological understanding requires sociological Imagination and sociological Perspectives. Being a sociologist, I can’t accept something as fact because “everyone knows it”. Sociologists taste and record every piece of information, then analyze it in terms of the relationship with other data. We rely on the facts which are gathered scientifically for describing, understanding and predicting any social phenomenon.

Sociology provides a scientific understanding of society. The discipline provides an in-depth understanding about social process, social relationships, social interactions, social systems, social institutions, social structures and the entire social life. Now, in the COVID-19 situation, our pattern of relationship is going through changes, our institutions, systems, structures and many other social agencies are going through changes but the understanding of such changes and taking specific measures to cope with the situation requires sociological understanding.

Sociological Imagination and sociological Perspectives commonly provide us sociological understanding. Sociological imagination allows individuals to see the relationships between events in their personal lives (biography), and events in their society (history) (C.W. Mills, 1959).Mills said “Not you. The world around you.” Mills believed things only worked when you saw “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society.” He encouraged people to stop focusing on themselves alone and to look at the wider landscape of society.  During COVID-19 Lock down situation, we should not focus on our own problem of managing both household chores and work from home but we have to understand it’s not me only, but the entire teaching community is adjusting with the situation. We have to relate our personal challenges with broader social issues. By sociological Imagination, we will be able to identify and create our own strategy for copping up with various challenges and opportunities of COVID-19.

A sociological perspective provides the way of looking at the society and social behavior and also offers explanation for such pattern. The main focus of sociological perspective is-

• It is a scientific endeavor with resilient humanistic curve – As scientific discipline, it focus on the value-free and objective cause-effect relationship of social phenomenon
• It views society or social relations as structured- Sociology is concerned with how the structure of society is created, maintained and change.
• It investigates the process of society through which society shapes individuals and vice –versa- It investigates the connection between what societies makes of us and what we make of ourselves.
• It studies social phenomenon from holistic and relational point of view both- By this sociologists identify recurrent pattern of and influences of social behavior.
• It studies human behavior in a group context- In the case of COVID-19, we are seeing collective behavior, we can see rumors and misinformation, often spreading through various forms of social media. It helps to critically analyze Fake News and Negative Publicity.
• Sociological Perspective involves the investigation of the problem on micro and macro levels both- During COVID-19, at micro level, we are dealing with relationship with infamily members and the everyday interaction and at macro level, we are focusing on pattern of behavior and forms of organizations created by non-familial relationships such as online teaching that characterizes changing nature of educational institutions.

Society is going through various changes, be it through COVID-19 pandemic situation or global governance, as a social being we can’t escape the changing situation of society. Thus, importance of studying Sociology is increasing day by day. Sociology is comparatively new subject, still, the way it gives scientific explanations of the studies of society make her “Queen” of all social Sciences (Comte, 1856).

After studying sociology, you can be successful in your career through your unique expertise in the sociological understanding along with skills of innovation, critical thinking, analytic problem-solving, collaboration, communication, multicultural & global understandings, and expressive and convincing writing skills. Career impingement in today’s diverse global society necessitates the capacity to work cooperatively in different set ups but you have to market yourself. When you will look for any job, you have to have the confidence that you are your preeminent asset; your skill set is only as striking as your ability to market yourself. 

 

 

These can be the suggestive guidelines which will help to market the skills that one will attain from Sociology:

1. Highlight one’s understanding of diversified topics

Most of sociology students chooses career related to welfare officer, consultancy firms, policy makers which require an awareness and sensitivity towards diversified topics such as study of stratification, gender, social change, globalization, health, economy, environment etc. You have to note your familiarity with diversified topics.

2. Highlight one’s field work experiences

Students who are interested to get job in NGOs, social services or community services,  they have to focus on their field work experiences in various fields of society ranging from visit to slums to corporate training.

3. Highlight how sociology encourages leadership skills

Sociology is about the study of people in both large and small groups. Your study about industry and organization, social psychology, rural and urban sociology, criminology and others focusing on group should highlight how the training has ready you for a management-track position. The lesion of critical thinking along with learning of various sociological theories, social problems provides the experience of considering different viewpoints, recognize, and problem solving.

4. Highlight one’s data collection skills

As a job seeker in the field of teaching, research fellow, project fellow, urban planner etc. one has to focus on one’s data collection skills. In the research methodology classes, one is required to do one’s own research project, for example- making of questionnaire, experience of conducting survey through interview, rapport building with the sample etc. The focus group study method which the student will choose will be important for showing your leadership and teamwork ability.

 

5. Highlight one’s skill of data analysis and data interpretation

Being sociology students, when you conduct research, you have to learn how to analyze and interpret data after collation of data. You also know tabulation skills and along with statistical analysis your skill of data analysis by using SPSS  or STATA software is to highlight. You will also have to highlight your data interpretation skills by using theoretical understanding and sociological perspectives

 

You, being student of sociology can also get jobs as:

1. Civil servants and other govt. officials
2. HR professionals in various MNCs
3. Politics and governance
4. Content writers

This portrays the subject Sociology has various avenues and opportunities for students in the job market —- be it in the education sector, industrial sector and also in public health sector, both in national and international job market.

Sl No.	Skills learned through the study of Sociology	Jobs After studying Sociology
1.	Sociological understanding of diversified topics	Welfare officer, Consultancy firms, Policy makers, Family support specialist, Gerontologist, Substance abuse counselor,
2.	Experience of Field work	NGOs, social services or Community services, UNISEF, WHO
3.	Leadership skills	Civil servants and other govt. officials ; Project Manager
4.	Critical Thinking, Problem solving method	HR professionals in various MNCs; Public Relations Specialist, Politics and governance , Content Writer
5.	Data collection skills	Enumerator, Project fellow
6.	Data analysis and data interpretation	Teacher, Research fellow, Urban planner, Market Research analysts