Old is Gold Respect Your Parents

Many saints have forecasted that 21st century belongs to India. India would be leading the world and thus would be the Vishwaguru. The present government is rightly moving in the same direction to strengthen India, preserving its inherent values and tradition. The Modi government has many flagship programmes to bolster our manufacturing sector, infrastructure, agriculture sector and to bring more coherence and social harmony in our society. PM Modi’s Dussehra speech at Lucknow was a strong signal to the world. PM strongly took up social evils and strongly advocated to save our daughters. Also he spoke at length how to tackle terrorism. Still there are some loopholes in our society that needs to be plugged. Our educated children, after marriage, prefer to stay separately from their old-age parents.  As parents want their children to live a happy life, they prefer to live away from their beloved children. When they stay alone, they end up with want of proper care and sometimes they are murdered by anti-social elements so as to loot their money.

 Today, I read a heart-rending news, which shook me to the core. A nonagenarian husband was found living with the dead body of his wife in Delhi. The report substantiates the dejected and disconsolate situation our old people live in. Against this backdrop, it is worth mentioning here that according to the 2011 Census, there are over 10 crore senior citizens in India, of which close to 1.5 crore live alone. What is more, nearly three-fourth of them are women. It is noteworthy, out of every 10 elderly couples in India, more than six are made to leave their children’s home. Having no place to go and all expectations sunk, the elderly have to go to old age homes, which do not assure their first-class treatment. Unlike USA, in India, children after turning 18 are not left on their own by parents but children find it hard to accept the fact that there are times when parents want to feel the love that they once shared with them. The poser, in Indian society, is who has to look after the parents? A daughter, who got married and moved away and has responsibility of her family? Or a son, who has to spend the whole day at work, and comes tired at night? Even his wife, in urban areas, is needed to work to meet two ends. Grandchildren are busy with their studies. The main person becoming responsible to look after parents physically is daughter-in-law, who has no blood relation and actually is not obliged to take the responsibility. In fact, the dilemma lies not in actually taking care of parents, it is in living together. It cannot be gainsaid that in India there is more to elderly care than meets the eye. Here it’s not enough if children have an affable relationship with their parents, and provide medical and financial assistance when needed. They should prove it by their acts–by living with them, by listening to them and by utterly respect them constantly.

One should not forget the fact that our parents are our creator and are the reason of our existence. What you can do as an individual, as a family, greater family, should be the major concern of their children. And it is a true statement that we need to face this situation that elders in India are ill-treated and are treated as a burden on society. This is actually a predicament period for them. It is expected in Bharatiya culture, children to be blindly obedient towards their elders. Their adult children should live with their parents instead of having their own independent home. But what is happening in our society. Children prefer to live separately on the pretext of private life, which is a western concept. This is absolutely a rubbish thinking. For, if parents had thought of separating their children when their children attain 18 years of age, what would have been the condition of the children? Some experts talk that there should be more old-age homes in the country, but it is not the solution. The solution lies in joint families, not in nuclear families. In a joint family, elderly people are the true guardians, who infuse true values in the young generation. But what is happening today is just distressing and deplorable. Hence, what is required on part of our younger generation is to make sure that seniors are given their due respect and allowed to live with the dignity they deserve, because they devoted a significant part of their life in creating a wonderful place for their children to live in. We should ensure that they live with all the happiness they deserve in their life. Finally, I would sum up by saying that one must have a healthy, loving and pleasant relationship with one’s parents; one should make sure their economic and health situations are sound and that’s about it. Be it one’s own home or wherever they want to live, there is no right or wrong, only love, affection and total respect.

Deepak Kumar Rath